On December 6, 2016, Masayoshi MASA – founder of the Japanese Investment Company Softbank – was scheduled to visit the Wework headquarters in New York City. As usual, he was running late, and his subsequent meeting with President -elect Trump was great. The planned round for two hours in the WeWork tour turned into a 12 -minute corridor. Masa, the founder of WeWork, called Adam Newman, to join him in the back seat of his four -wheel drive vehicles for his ride to Trump Tower, 38 buildings north.
Neuman brought a printed version to see a new world of work: a cold and high -tech office space with cushions, Pelotons, and a lot of free wine. Masa waved everything aside. When withdrawing his iPad, he drew the outline of $ 4.4 billion to be determined by Softbank and the vision box. Half an hour later, MASA sent a photo to the digital “napkin”. It was blurring the lines that put a global partnership. SoftBank's investment involves a $ 20 billion rating for WeWork, the same Hilton hotels. Only Uber and Airbnb, the new HotShots in the start of the United States, was better.
At the age of 38, Newman fell to the ninth cloud. Fresh injection in SoftBank would help create a real estate giant worth billions of dollars. Better, it will be a billion dollars on paper. When his executive team later exchanged hugs and the fifth high, Mark Schwartz, Goldan Sachs Banker soon to join the WeW board, issued a warning note. He warned of a hot and cold diamond. Now, it runs on wenge. Watch out, if he starts running.
MASA first monitored Adam Newman in January 2016, at an event called Startup India in New Delhi. The stars bills went to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But Newman, a Jesus -like character standing 6 feet and 5 inches long, with sculpted cheekbones and flowing black hair, stole the width.
During most of his life, Adam Newman fought against difficulties. It was dyslexia. His parents divorced the doctor when he was 7 years old. He joined the Israeli Maritime Academy, took over the officers school, served on a missile boat in Haifa, then left. On that day in Delhi, Newman talked about the spiritual heritage of India as if he had spent life in the Indian subcontinent. Why was everyone talking about raising money, evaluations and the danger of the bubble? This is not the goal. The goal is to find something that you really love. ”
In the evening, Masa was eating at the Hindi Hindi's house Sunil Metal when Newman was late. And the security guards ignored, saying that he was looking for the right address. He tended to surrender and gambled in the largest house on the mass. Adam Newman was: apparently honest, obscene, limiting recklessness. Like MASA, he was working on a different planet, where everything was possible and the money was not large, especially if he was another person.
“Massa Adam Newman was the second coming [of Christ]Jurman Levy, investor investor in New York in New York, who only left Softbank. “Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, all rolled in one.”
The Massa pledge millions of dollars in the installation of a pattern of illogical decisions apparently to invest amounts that arouse money on the founders who barely spoke to them. Such moments are things of investment capital, which uses a high -risk and highly rewarding model. In the language of industry, it is called a “moon shot”.
But in the case of Masa, the psychological forces were the deeper work. His approach to work and life in general was that if he could imagine something, this should be true. But this approach also left him vulnerable to his dreamer. . . Those who talked about building international business empires and hegemony. “Star Wars”.
In the real world, Adam Newman was more than just a mediator, as he hired wholesale office and shipping to flexible rental numbers, great design, providing services such as the Internet, reception, and postal room. Neumann Wall Street has been sold from joyful coexistence such as Kibbutz in Israel with the development of entrepreneurship.
In March 2017, Neumann traveled to Tokyo to celebrate the investment in Softbank of $ 4.4 billion and divide revenues: about $ 3.1 billion for global expansion, with Softbank ($ 1.3 billion) to achieve WEWORK shares. Newman. . . She stood for several hundred million dollars, one of the most profitable sales of stocks by any CEO of a startup.
In late spring 2017, he is still looking for supporters of supporters to strengthen the treasures of the vision fund, MASA requested a meeting with Warren Buffett, Hakim Omaha. Investors loved the wisdom of the household, which is expressed every year in an annual message to shareholders.
Masa, which was not good in the little conversation, went directly to this point. Berkshire wanted to support his vision fund, a leading financing method for We was investing in Softbank. But Buffett made it clear that he was an investor in the old school and was not interested in religion. “I am a man of cash flow,” explained. Rajev Misra soon captured the CEO of Softbank that Pavite had no interest in placing money in the vision box. Masa continued regardless of; Pavite was politely different. The meeting hardly continued 20 minutes; Masa had moved 6000 miles to hold a meeting with a giant zero. Presscient was impressive.
Newman was always looking for more money from Massa, but it was outrageously angry when it was about supervising. One of the other team members said, “Adam played the prosecution of Judaism,” noting that the other team members noticed accurately on Saturday, which left all the unfamiliar parties from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
In mid -2018, thanks to the Softbank investment, which amounted to $ 4.4 billion, WeWork had an explosive growth in revenue, albeit in conformity with the losses of the eye water. On a thunderbolt visit to Tokyo, Newman put a name on a plan to control the entire real estate market from the apartment space. Through Numan accounts, weWork revenues will increase from $ 2.3 billion in 2018 to $ 101 billion in 2023. It will have 14 million members, up from 420,000 currently. In general, we first planned to have a billion square feet of office space, that is, twice the size of the real estate market in Manhattan. For this, he called for an investment of $ 70 billion.
Instead of showing Neumann the door, Masa released the red carpet. Later, sitting next to him at the WeWork offices in New York, MASA pulled his iPad with a scheme that showed a growth curve -similar to the hockey collision of the main WeWork business. By 2028, he wrote that the work will have 100 million members and reached $ 500 billion in revenue.
After tense negotiations, Massa and Yuman settled on a plan. Softbank Group will buy all current investors in Neumann for about $ 10 billion and put another $ 10 billion in WeWork, giving Softbank ownership of most companies. Newman will remain the largest distinguished shareholder. The deal reached the largest purchase and investment in the United States in the United States. Softbank has been required to deposit $ 3 billion to clarify the deal in the movement, and a total assessment of $ 47 billion, which is an amazing number. And in the end, my fake.
Within a year, given that WeWork is interested in a long public subscription, the company's basics-and investment billionaires in Masa-failed in the necessary due care. The evaluation is 47 billion dollars rapidly to $ 5 billion. Adam Newman was quickly sent in mobilization as an executive head – billions of billions of financing were from its public budget. “Many of the investments that have failed,” said Masa at the time. “This is my regret.”
Publishing Rights © 2025 by Lionel Barber. From Gambling Man by Lionel Barber, published by One Signal Publishes, a footprint for Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed with permission.
