Marcelo Claure, the executive chairman at embattled company WeWork, said in an interview that former CEO Adam Neumann didn’t leave the company with more than $1 billion, as was reported, according to a report by CNBC.
Claure is a SoftBank executive as well as the executive chairman at telecommunications company Sprint.
“To say that he has walked away with over a billion dollars is totally false,” Claure said.
In October, it was reported that Neumann was going to get $1.7 billion to leave the company and hand over his voting rights. He was going to get $970 million for his portion of shares in the company, about $185 million for a consulting fee and $500 million toward the repayment of loans.
“There’s a tender going on right now in which Adam will have the right to participate with shareholders,” Claure said of the former CEO. “He’s a large shareholder of the company, he was a founder, and as we do a tender to [buy] shares from other shareholders, he’s going to have the same opportunity as any other shareholder.”
Claure said he “rarely” talks to Neumann, but sometimes the former CEO will give his thoughts on WeWork.
“I think he’s very excited that the business is transitioning from high growth to a more disciplined business with accountability and with a more mature leadership,” Claure said.
SoftBank took control of WeWork after the company tried and failed to go public, which caused its own ensuing problems and showed flaws in the company’s work environment. Neumann was ultimately ousted after the company revealed it had a $900 million loss.
The October agreement between WeWork and SoftBank was that the Japanese company would give it $5 billion in new capital and up to $3 billion in a tender offer to shareholders.
Sandeep Mathrani, who used to be Brookfield Properties’ retail group CEO, will step in as new CEO on Feb. 18.
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