WeWork owner The We Company said on Friday it plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq and announced changes to its corporate governance, including curbs in the voting power of founder and CEO
Adam Neumann, ahead of the roadshow for its stock market launch.
WeWork also said no member of Neumann's family will be on the company's board and any future successor will be selected collectively by the board.
The company's executives, investors and advisers had been discussing curbing the voting power of Neumann and removing his co-founder wife from a role in succession planning, a person familiar with the matter had said on Thursday.
In the run up to its
IPO, WeWork has faced concerns over its corporate governance standards, as well as the sustainability of its business model, which relies on a mix of long-term liabilities and short-term revenue, and how such a model would weather an economic downturn.
Revising Neumann's supervoting rights, which give him 20 times the voting power of ordinary
shareholders, was among the changes discussed, the source had said.
We Company, whose losses are widening with no stated path to profitability, had awarded Neumann unusual privileges that go beyond what most stock market investors are accustomed to.
We Company co-founder
Rebekah Neumann, Adam Neumann's wife who is the company's chief brand and impact officer, was supposed to pick his successor if he died or got permanently disabled in the 10 years following the IPO, alongside two company board members. She was supposed to pick those board members if two people currently on the board, Bruce Dunlevie and Steven Langman, stepped down.
Another possible change that was being considered was taking Rebekah Neumann out of this role, the source added.
Despite receiving lukewarm interest in its shares, the We Company is pressing ahead with an initial public offering and may seek a valuation as low as $15 billion to $18 billion in its IPO, down from the $47 billion value it commanded in the last private fundraising round in January.
The news on plans to curb Neumann's voting power was earlier reported by the Financial Times. We Company declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.