CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on Friday that WeWork should pull its embattled initial public offering because the negative sentiment around slashing its valuation could be contagious in the overall stock market.
“Stop the WeWork deal,” Cramer said on “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want that deal. I just wish they would go away.”
Despite a number of a setbacks, including a dramatic cut in its valuation, the office-sharing start up said it’s full speed ahead, with sources telling CNBC the IPO roadshow could kick off as soon as Monday.
“I don’t want WeWork at any price,” Cramer said. “There are certain deals that can come and they can just really take the air out of any market.”
WeWork’s plans to move forward despite the reported advice from its major investor SoftBank, which will likely face a multibillion dollar write down if the company debuts at a valuation between $15 billion and $20 billion. SoftBank invested $2 billion in WeWork in January at a valuation of $47 billion. On Friday, CNBC’s David Faber was hearing the valuation could be $15 billion or lower.
“Why can’t they just say, ‘Hey, we’re awful and we’re going to wait until we’re good again,'” Cramer said. “We don’t want to give them money. They’re just going to screw up the market,” the “Mad Money” host added.
On Friday, in an amended IPO filing, the We Company, owner of WeWork, announced plans to list on the Nasdaq.
Addressing sharp criticism over its corporate governance, WeWork also reduced founder and CEO Adam Neumann’s voting power. The filing also said that “no members of Adam’s family will sit on our board.”
Earlier this month, WeWork announced that Neumann would return a controversial $5.9 million trademark payment. The company also appointed its first female director to the board.
CNBC’s before the bell news roundup
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— Reuters contribute to this report.