Technology

Confirming earlier reports, The We Company and SoftBank Group agreed to a new capital infusion which will see SoftBank committing $5 billion in new financing and issuing a tender offer for another $3 billion in buybacks for shareholders.

The company also said it would accelerate an existing commitment to put $1.5 billion into the short-term real estate rental company.

Under the specific terms of the deal, WeWork will receive $1.5 billion committed from SoftBankApril 2020 cash infusion into the company at $11.60 per share. With that money expected to come in seven days after the deal is signed (subject to shareholder approval).

Therealso the tender offer for up to $3 billion worth of non-SoftBank owned shares at a price of $19.19 per share, which will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, with closing subject to regulatory approvals.

Finally therea joint venture share swap where all of SoftBank Vision Fundinterests in regional joint ventures outside of Japan will be exchanged for WeWork shares at a price of $11.60 per share& and a debt facility consisting of $1.1 billion in senior secured notes, $2.2 billion in unsecured notes, and a $1.75 billion letter of credit facility, which will occur after the tender offer is completed.

After the closing and the tender offer, SoftBank will own approximately 80 percent of the We Company, according to a statement.

But SoftBank will not actually will not hold a majority of voting rights at any stockholder or board of directors meeting, thanks to WeWorkconvoluted ownership structure. Therefore, even with its 80 percent stake in the business, WeWork isn&t a subsidiary, but an &associate& of SoftBank.

As part of the agreement, the company confirmed that Adam Neumann will become a board observer and Marcelo Claure, the chief operating officer of SoftBank Group will assume the position of executive chairman of the board of directors of WeWork — as soon as the company receives its $1.5 billion payment from SoftBank.

&SoftBank is a firm believer that the world is undergoing a massive transformation in the way people work. WeWork is at the forefront of this revolution. It is not unusual for the worldleading technology disruptors to experience growth challenges as the one WeWork just faced,& said Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp, in a statement. &Since the vision remains unchanged, SoftBank has decided to double down on the company by providing a significant capital infusion and operational support. We remain committed to WeWork, its employees, its member customers and landlords.&

The vision may remain unchanged, but the story that SoftBank will have to tell about its new &associate&. Under Neumannstewardship, We Company was a cash-burning, globe-spanning, all-encompassing community developer that would usher in a new kind of capitalism, operating under the banner of &We&.

Now, the company is more like a struggling purveyor of temporary office space, which has a mountain of leases it owns and is looking down the barrel of a potential cash crunch — even with the SoftBank lifeline.

Still, SoftBankexecutives and WeWorknew leadership are standing by their rhetoric for what the company is… and can be.

&WeWork is redefining the nature of work by creating meaningful experiences through integrating design, technology and community. The new capital SoftBank is providing will restore momentum to the company and I am committed to delivering profitability and positive free cash flow,& said Claure in a statement. &As important as the financial implications, this investment demonstrates our confidence in WeWork and its ability to continue to lead in disrupting the commercial real estate market by delivering flexible, collaborative and productive work environments to our customers.&

North Carolina has been rising as an entrepreneurial hub. Itnow home to massive deals, like IBM buying Red Hat for $34 billion and Fortnite maker Epic Games raising a landmark $1.25 billion, both which helped to put the state — and the Triangle region, in particular — on the map. And now itjust minted another unicorn with Pendolast fundraise. But its tech hub potential can still be threatened by the statepolitical swings, said Salesforce Ventures head John Somorjai, who spoke today at a tech event in Durham.

On a panel at Bull City Venture Partners& Entrepreneurs& Series 2019, Somorjai reminded the audience that investment in the state follows the talent. And a state can&t attract talent when itnot &welcoming to all people,& he said.

North Carolina has had a difficult history on this front, if you recall.

In 2016, PayPal canceled plans to open a global operations center in Charlotte after N.C. passed the controversial (&bathroom bill&) law that prevented cities from creating non-discrimination policies based on gender identity. The state lost 400 potential jobs, as a result. Over 100 other companies, including Apple, Google, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Uber, and others also asked the state to repeal the law after its passing.

N.C. eventually revised the law, then reached a settlement this summer that allows transgender people to use certain bathrooms matching their gender identity. But in some cases, it was too late to woo the tech companies back.

Apple and Amazon have also been separately criticized, at times, for considering N.C. area investments because of the stateanti-LGBTQ leanings.

This issue now has a broad effect on the stateability to attract tech and business investment at a time when investors are oftenlooking outside the Valley (and its obscene valuations) to find companies that are more focused on profitability.

Salesforce Ventures, a strategic investor who keeps its stake below 15%, isn&t hesitant to fund companies beyond Silicon Valley — it has five investments in N.C. and 15 overall in the larger region, for example. And 75% of its investments were made outside of California, Somorjai noted.

But when asked what North Carolinabiggest challenge was, in terms of becoming home to a startup community, he alluded to the statepolitics and its history of divisive laws.

&Before the last election, there was an environment here that wasn&t really welcoming to all people,& Somorjai said. &One of [Salesforce&s] core tenants — our core values — is equality. And therereally sound business sense behind that,& he explained. &If you have discriminatory policies, people don&t feel welcome. If they don&t feel welcome, they&re not going to want to work there. And you will never be able to attract the best talent.&

&Money flows to where the talent is,& he added.

He also suggested to the eventaudience — a group of some 450 entrepreneurs and hundreds more working in the areastartup ecosystem — that local community leaders should remain vigilant about these sorts of problems.

&If you&re complacent, it can happen again,& he said.

Despite the concerns, Somorjai was generally positive about the ability for strong startups to arise in N.C.

Salesforce Ventures itself invested in two N.C. area unicorns — Pendo and nCino — and it just acquired Charlotte-based MapAnything, which gives it some 200 new employees in the Tar Heel state. Elsewhere in N.C., startups AvidXchange, Red Ventures, and Tresata all have unicorn valuations.

&One thing we&ve been so excited about is — you have these tremendous universities that are putting out great engineers every year. And you have a growing group of investors that are investing in this area. Therealso now so much talent here that you&re attracting investors from all over the country,& he told the audience. &I think thatgreat.&

Image credit, top: SeanPavonePhoto/Getty Images

On November 12 Verizon will begin offering 12 months of Disney+ to all of its new and existing 4gLTE and 5G unlimited wireless customers, the companies said today in a joint statement.

Ita great way for Disney to juice its early subscriber numbers and for Verizon to add a tantalizing perk as competition heats up for both streaming media companies and telecoms whose media strategy still seems a little… muddled.

While Comcast and AT-T each have their own successful media properties, Verizon (which owns Verizon Media Group, which owns TechCrunch) has seen its fortunes in the media landscape wane as much of the investment thesis behind buying Aol… then Yahoo… then merging them into Oath… then rebranding them as Verizon Media Group… fizzled.

Tying itself to Disney+ — even just promotionally — makes good business sense.

Through the agreement Verizon customers get access to everything Disney+ has to offer, including the highly anticipated Star Wars television series, &The Mandalorian& and another 25 original films and documentaries. Watch the over three hour-long teaser trailer below for an exhaustive look at every. single. Disney. piece. of. content. coming. to. the. service.

&Giving Verizon customers an unprecedented offer and access to Disney+ on the platform of their choice is yet another example of our commitment to provide the best premium content available through key partnerships on behalf of our customers,& said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg, in a statement. &Our work with Disney extends beyond Disney+ as we bring the power of 5G Ultra Wideband technology to the entertainment industry through exciting initiatives with Disney Innovation Studios and in the parks,& he added.

Herethe deal: At launch, Verizon becomes the exclusive wireless carrier to offer 12 months of Disney+ for itsnew and existing customers. The offer also extends to its new Fios Home Internet and 5G Home Internet customers.

Folks can activate their Disney+ subscription and start streaming on devices including game consoles, streaming media players and smart televisions.