WeWork Exits Meetup Business
In the normal business climate, having meetups of developers or like-minded professionals is a common activity. In the current climate, with a global pandemic, meetups are far from common.
One of the leading apps for helping to organize meetups is none other than Meetup, which until March 30 was owned by WeWork. Meetup was founded in 2002 and acquired by WeWork for $156 million in 2017.
WeWork has now sold Meetup to a group of private investors, led by Kevin Ryan's AlleyCorp. Financial terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed, though it has been rumored that the acquisition price is substantially less than what WeWork paid in 2017.
“This acquisition provides the long-term capital to ensure that Meetup focuses on what is most important: the organizers who make Meetup successful, our passionate members, and our dedicated employees,” David Siegel, CEO of Meetup, said in a statement. “We are excited to continue on our mission of empowering personal growth through real human connections, and I'm happy to have brought in a team of smart investors who share and support the same values.”
Meetup boasts a community of 49 million members that in normal times produces an average of 15,000 events every day around the world. WeWork has had its own share of financial challenges of late, which is among the reasons for the divestiture of Meetup.
“We thank David and the entire Meetup team for their many contributions to WeWork over the past two and a half years,” said Rohit Dave, head of Corporate Development, WeWork. “Our decision to divest Meetup aligns with WeWork's renewed focus on the company's core workspace business and marks a positive step forward for both WeWork and Meetup.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseAppsToday and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Sean Michael is a writer who focuses on innovation and how science and technology intersect with industry, technology Wordpress, VMware Salesforce, And Application tech. TechCrunch Europas shortlisted her for the best tech journalist award. She enjoys finding stories that open people's eyes. She graduated from the University of California.
