WSJ: WeWork: A $20 Billion Startup Fueled by Silicon Valley Pixie Dust; CEO OUSTED REMAINS CHAIRMAN

[bnew]

WeWork's shonky WiFi leaks all kinds of sensitive documents | TheINQUIRER
WeWork's shonky WiFi leaks all kinds of sensitive documents

Hope none of these people are hackers.

• 
• Alan Martin
• @alan_p_martin

• 20 September 2019

THERE ARE ADVANTAGES to sharing an office. Lower costs, for one. Better parties for another. You may even be able to have a tea kitty if you're really lucky.

But the costs, it turns out, can be pretty high: especially if you regularly share sensitive documents. CNET has just published a pretty shocking investigation into the WiFi security at WeWork, the shared working space for businesses and individuals.

While "super-fast internet" is marketed as the top amenity on the site, the security is questionable to put it mildly. CNET reports that it had reviewed WiFi scans from hundreds of exposed devices leaving all kinds of private data exposed from emails and financial data to scans of ID and birthday cards.

To make matters worse, according to the report, multiple WeWork locations use the same WiFi password, and given anyone can book conference rooms for $25 per hour, a hacker could just rock up, steal some files and then move on for less than the cost of a decent meal out.

The security conscious can (and should) get around this with WeWork's security packages - but the company sells these as extras, which clearly many of its members see as optional. A private VLAN, for example, costs $95 per month on top of a setup fee of $250.

The piece was compiled in conjunction with Teemu Airamo, head of Vieca Media who told the site he'd been flagging these security issues to WeWork since 2015. "For me, it was pretty much, 'Holy shyt,'" he told CNET, reporting the problem immediately to the community manager. ""I said, 'Did you know that we can actually see all this?' he recalled. "The answer was, 'yeah, eh.'"

Despite this, he still runs his business out of a WeWork in Manhattan (with a VPN, of course), regularly scanning the network to see if the company has finally listened. So far, it appears not.

You can read the full jaw-dropping investigation over at CNET. µ

 

[88m3]

WeWork's shonky WiFi leaks all kinds of sensitive documents | TheINQUIRER
WeWork's shonky WiFi leaks all kinds of sensitive documents

Hope none of these people are hackers.

• 
• Alan Martin
• @alan_p_martin

• 20 September 2019

THERE ARE ADVANTAGES to sharing an office. Lower costs, for one. Better parties for another. You may even be able to have a tea kitty if you're really lucky.

But the costs, it turns out, can be pretty high: especially if you regularly share sensitive documents. CNET has just published a pretty shocking investigation into the WiFi security at WeWork, the shared working space for businesses and individuals.

While "super-fast internet" is marketed as the top amenity on the site, the security is questionable to put it mildly. CNET reports that it had reviewed WiFi scans from hundreds of exposed devices leaving all kinds of private data exposed from emails and financial data to scans of ID and birthday cards.

To make matters worse, according to the report, multiple WeWork locations use the same WiFi password, and given anyone can book conference rooms for $25 per hour, a hacker could just rock up, steal some files and then move on for less than the cost of a decent meal out.

The security conscious can (and should) get around this with WeWork's security packages - but the company sells these as extras, which clearly many of its members see as optional. A private VLAN, for example, costs $95 per month on top of a setup fee of $250.

The piece was compiled in conjunction with Teemu Airamo, head of Vieca Media who told the site he'd been flagging these security issues to WeWork since 2015. "For me, it was pretty much, 'Holy shyt,'" he told CNET, reporting the problem immediately to the community manager. ""I said, 'Did you know that we can actually see all this?' he recalled. "The answer was, 'yeah, eh.'"

Despite this, he still runs his business out of a WeWork in Manhattan (with a VPN, of course), regularly scanning the network to see if the company has finally listened. So far, it appears not.

You can read the full jaw-dropping investigation over at CNET. µ

this is insane

makes me glad I never opted to rent a space

 

[mitter]

This whole thing is just disgusting

 

[Dorian Breh]

I hope this is the sign of things to come. We Work was perhaps the most egregious but there's a lot more of these funny money start ups that need to get burned down

 

[Jhoon]

I hope this is the sign of things to come. We Work was perhaps the most egregious but there's a lot more of these funny money start ups that need to get burned down

It just isn’t just we work.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Amazing! Dude got more nerve than a toothache.
Isn't this the CEO who used to smoke pot on private jets and drink special tequila all day?
If he was black he would be a straight up gangster rapper touring with Migos and Gucci Mane right about now.

a real rap artist wouldn't leave his friends out to dry like that

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

ft.com
SoftBank’s Son admits turning ‘blind eye’ to WeWork lapses
Kana Inagaki in Tokyo 7 hours ago
4-5 minutes
Masayoshi Son, the defiant founder of SoftBank, admitted he had turned a “blind eye” to governance lapses at WeWork but vowed to revive the crisis-hit group after disclosing a $4.6bn writedown on the Japanese company’s investment in it.

The dismal results on Wednesday came two weeks after SoftBank agreed a $9.5bn package to rescue the US office-sharing group following an aborted attempt at an initial public offering. The deal saw WeWork’s valuation sink from $47bn in January to $8bn.

Despite the setback, Mr Son defended Softbank’s strategy in his two-hour presentation, insisting the WeWork deal was not “a bailout”, its $97bn Vision fund was still doing better than other venture capitalists, and that plans to deploy another $100bn fund were on track.

“I made a bad investment decision and I am deeply remorseful,” Mr Son said at a news conference in Tokyo. “But there is no change to my strategy or vision.”

Mr Son said SoftBank would aim to get a return on its WeWork investment in four to five years with a turnround plan that involves a freeze on new leases and shutdown of its lossmaking noncore businesses.

“The logic is simple. Time will resolve . . . and we will see a sharp V-shaped recovery,” Mr Son said.

For the July to September quarter, SoftBank reported a net loss of ¥700bn ($6.4bn) from a year earlier profit of ¥526bn. The performance of its Vision fund, which had driven SoftBank’s earnings since its launch in 2017, was pressured by unrealised losses totalling ¥538bn from its investments including WeWork and ride-hailing group Uber.

Mr Son admitted there may be “plenty” of other investments backed by the Vision fund that were overpriced such as Wag, the dog-walking company. But the SoftBank boss insisted there will be more upside than downside, saying 37 of 88 investments by the Vision fund increased in value while 22 others declined.

The value of SoftBank’s equity holdings increased 7.1 per cent from the past quarter. That was mainly driven by gains in its stake in Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba. Net debt increased from ¥4.9tn to ¥5.5tn.

The WeWork crisis has been a rare blunder for the billionaire founder of SoftBank, an aggressive dealmaker who claims to be guided by a gut feeling in picking winners in the technology industry.

Under pressure from investors, Mr Son revealed that the company will adopt new measures to tighten governance at companies it backs, as earlier reported by the Financial Times.

Are investors right to run away from WeWork?
The Japanese group poured more than $10bn into WeWork as Mr Son backed Adam Neumann, the co-founder of the property group. But governance concerns and questions about its business model killed WeWork’s hopes for a listing after it failed to fetch even a $15bn valuation from investors.

Mr Neumann was ultimately forced out of the company, but not before he secured a controversial $1.7bn exit package even as 4,000 WeWork employees are to be fired.

“I turned a blind eye to many of his negative aspects. I have major regrets particularly on [WeWork’s] governance problem,” Mr Son conceded on Wednesday.

Mr Son stressed that its new $108bn Vision fund will “launch on schedule”, but Saudi Arabia and its neighbour Abu Dhabi, the two major investors in the current $97bn fund, have been slow to commit following the WeWork turmoil.

Some analysts questioned Mr Son’s bullish outlook on WeWork’s recovery plan. “Cost reductions are necessary of course, but a corresponding pullback in growth makes WeWork look a lot like IWG, which is worth $4.5bn, and that is even lower than the implied $8bn SoftBank just paid,” said Kirk Boodry, a tech analyst at Redex Holdings who publishes on research platform Smartkarma.

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

I mean really realllllllllllllllllllllyyyyy think about this shyt.

Even the most sophisticated investors in the world are utterly powerless, incapable of saying no to tall white guys who talk a good game....I mean they're happy to ignore even the most basic/fundamental rules that usually guide investors committing BILLIONS of dollars...

 

[waltthizzney]

hope air bnb and uber are next

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I mean really realllllllllllllllllllllyyyyy think about this shyt.

Even the most sophisticated investors in the world are utterly powerless, incapable of saying no to tall white guys who talk a good game....I mean they're happy to ignore even the most basic/fundamental rules that usually guide investors committing BILLIONS of dollars...

the same inequity, discrimination, and elitism is just replicated all up and down every corridor. These people get funded by sovereign wealth funds and friends of their friends.

Theres no hope for a lot of us.

 

[phcitywarrior]

hope air bnb and uber are next

Uber I think is here to stay. They generate billions in revenue each year, they just have to work on streamlining their costs.

 

[Unknown Poster]

This is white privilege in a nutshell. No black person can ever do this. Ever!!

Same ish with Elizabeth Theranos. Storied investment capital firms would be too scared to give black folks money even if the company turned a profit. Meanwhile, goofy white people that shop at Zara that wear jeans to business meetings are having tens of millions thrown at them from Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan even as their companies hemorrhage money and don't turn a profit year after year.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Part of me wonders if they are just selling people on this "virtuous investing" bullshyt. Its so obvious that its all a scam too. The VCs know this shyt won't last either.

two years ago to the date

 

[Unknown Poster]

After this recession, I feel like we might look back on companies like this and wonder WTF people were thinking

Remember pets.com?
bigwords.com

Or even more climatic and eventful....digital entertainment network?

I have a feeling we're going to see another dot com bust like around 2000/Y2k...as the economy goes down we're going to see that many of these companies simply were not built for the long haul.

 

[Unknown Poster]

This current Valuation is so crazy but I wouldn’t bet on this company to bomb. I got a mans who works at Costar and he tells me the Tech disruption in real estate ( which is where wework will eventually pivot to) is hot right now.

People here are going to hate me for saying this, but alot of these tech companies are just fueling the fire for income/wealth disparity, gentrification, and making the markets the subside in worse for small businesses that can't compete with the money (most of it not even theirs) that they can throw around.

This gig economy is trash and it's racist/classist as hell.