Dexter Braff

Remember the run-up to the global recession when lenders were tripping over themselves to get in on a mergers and acquisitions climate that was positively giddy? When debt capacity, typically expressed as a multiple of a company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization reached milestone levels, eclipsing the “6X barrier” (as coined by PitchBook)? When the term “covenant-lite”, describing loan agreements with fewer protective covenants for the buyer and less restrictions for borrowers, became a thing?

The saga of WeWork is the stuff of hubris – a financial folly built upon a hope and a dream, financed by a mountain of debt. Once a Google-esque darling of the hyper-hipster Technorati, the office sharing wunderkind saw its valuation tumble from $47 billion to $10 billion to whether it is even viable in the span of a few short months.