Emailed on November 8th, 2019 in The Friday Forward

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says he has devised a “simple formula” to turn around troubled co-working startup WeWork.

Son laid out a three-step plan that he said will right the ship during an earnings conference on Wednesday (in which the Japanese conglomerate reported its first quarterly loss in 14 years.) 

Are you ready? 

Let'd do this. 

According to Son, WeWork must

1. Stop building offices for roughly three to four years, since construction requires significant upfront investments.

2. Cut costs and “terminate” side businesses that aren’t profitable by either selling or closing them.

3. Increase gross profits and reduce operating expenses.

But wait... we've got slides. Ya'll, look at these effing slides:

This one nicely outlines the affect of increasing EBITDA. Note the small "Future" tick mark. Looks like it gets worse before it gets better - that makes it more realistic... and boy does the future after the future look bright.

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT ARROW. That's how you know it's legit.

Okay... okay... I'm picking up what you're putting down: Good stuff up, bad stuff down. One-way ticket to turnaround town.

I’m not an economist, but I can tell you one thing: if the fruit water is one of those items going down with OpEx, this business is doomed.

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