“What is this, a business operations footprint for ants?!” – VCs to WeWork China, probably.
WeWork China has just raised $500M as part of a Series B funding round that aims to triple the cities that it operates in. WeWork currently has locations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.
The co-worker first made a push into China just two years ago.
Last year “W2” raised $500M via a Series A funding round. And their insatiable appetite for hip, overpriced cubicle farms led to the acquisition of their largest rival in the region, Naked Hub, last year for roughly $400M.Prior to the latest funding round, WeWork operated in 40 office locations and claimed 20k members in the People’s Republic.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “People do know that it’s free to work at a Starbucks, right? And now you don’t even need to buy anything to sit there all day.”
Late Thursday night MoviePass, the $9.95 per month, all-you-can-watch in-theater movie subscription briefly halted service. The reason? Cash flow, or lack thereof.
The parent company of MoviePass, Helios and Matheson, secured a $5M emergency loan to fund movie ticket purchases. The bailout sent shares of “H&M” plummeting from $22.50 to $4.25 just a week after performing a 1 for 250 reverse stock split to meet the Nasdaq stock exchange’s $1 share minimum.
Things continue to go from bad to “dumpster fire” for the company who just recently added “surge pricing” for in demand movies. In May the company reported securing a $300M line of credit that would sustain the business for “at least a year.” CEO Mitch Lowe was never great at math.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Define irony: the company blocked users from seeing a movie called “Mission: Impossible” this weekend.”
BP is taking a break from cleaning off pelicans and trying to get back to business in the US. The British oil barons announced that they’ll be buying the majority of BHP Billiton’s onshore oil and gas units in the US. BP will pay $10.5B for the opportunity as they attempt to regain their composure after the Deepwater Horizon fiasco.
The purchase of BHP Billiton’s assets gives BP access to some prime real estate in the US shale patch as more and more energy companies attempt to bring their operations back on shore. BHP paid a combined $20B to acquire this shale back in 2011, and things haven’t quite panned out for them thanks to the collapse of energy prices globally. The deal is BP’s biggest since buying Arco in 2009.
BHP isn’t the only player shuffling its deck, either. Chesapeake Energy announced last week that it would be dumping around $2B in oil and gas fields in Ohio, while Royal Dutch Shell is working on wrapping up a $30B asset sale that began in 2016.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “If I know BP like I think I do, this is just a practice run for when Elon gets us all to Mars.”
