WeWork failed in 2019 to pull off an initial public offering, due in part to investors who thought the company would not survive an economic downturn. With the economy now in a recession or depression, that theory is being tested as millions of workers are told to work remotely from home.
Working remotely has introduced new customers to technology made by Slack, Zoom, Atlassian, Citrix and others that have spent the past decade enabling people to take their offices with them, CNBC reported. “For companies that have resisted work-from-home efforts, a seamless stretch of months away from the office could change minds and establish work-from-home policies as standard for nearly all jobs,” Alex Sherman wrote for CNBC.
The commercial mortgage-backed securities market has essentially collapsed and the broader $20 trillion commercial real estate market is on the verge of collapse as well, according to Greg Kraut, co-founder and CEO of New York-based KPG Funds. “We still have time to prevent this catastrophic event, but we need government intervention now,” Kraut wrote on April 2 in a column for the Commerical Observer.
Calls have gone out for a commercial rent and debt service moratorium, Crain’s reported.
