WeWork has begun the much-rumored culling of its workforce, saying it will lay off 2,400 employees globally ー about 16 percent of its headcount.

The layoffs have been expected for weeks, ever since the embattled office-sharing company saw its hopes of an IPO collapse amid scrutiny of its corporate governance and huge losses. SoftBank, WeWork's main benefactor, said last month it would spend $9.5 billion on a rescue package for We, which was fast running out of cash. This week, it was reported that SoftBank is having trouble finding a borrower in its home country of Japan to finance part of that loan.

In a statement to Cheddar, a WeWork spokesman said the cuts will help the company "create a more efficient organization" and that the 2,400 laid-off employees "will receive severance, continued benefits, and other forms of assistance to aid in their career transition." The process had already begun in offices around the world and continued this week in the U.S.

"These are incredibly talented professionals, and we are grateful for the important roles they have played in building WeWork over the last decade," the statement said.

The job cuts served as a culmination of one of the most precipitous downfalls of a startup in American corporate history. It was just over the summer that banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs were saying WeWork could be worth as much as $60 billion to $90 billion as they pushed a public float that never materialized.

Three months later, with the founder and CEO forced out, the offering scrapped indefinitely, and another lifeline from SoftBank, the We Company, as it's officially known, now has the unenviable task of shrinking its workforce, re-focusing its business model, and turning itself into a business that could, at least one day, be a profitable investment.

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