SoftBank takes 80% stake in WeWork with $9.5bn bailout

Japanese conglomerate will have majority economic interest but not voting control

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SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son speaks at an earnings release in Tokyo. (Photo by Keiichiro Sato)

ALEX FANG and YUMIKO OSHIMA, Nikkei staff writers

NEW YORK -- WeWork announced on Tuesday that it had accepted a $9.5 billion rescue package from Japan's SoftBank Group that would give its biggest investor an over 80% economic interest in the troubled office space company but not voting control.

The rescue package marks the end of an era for WeWork, which was forced to pull a planned public share offering last month and is now valued in the bailout at around $8 billion, versus the $47 billion that a fund-raising valued it in January.

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