“Tech” company WeWork is reportedly in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. WeWork’s largest investor SoftBank will not be participating in the raise, which is a bit of a surprise because if it looked good at a $47 billion valuation, it must look like a steal at $830 million! Perhaps deep-pocketed former CEO Adam Neumann would consider participating given his net worth now far surpasses the company?

The lowdown

• 🏢 WeWork is in talks to raise hundreds of millions in fresh capital.

• 🔻 Wall Street sell off after comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell indicate rates could go higher than expected.

• 🕊️ Musk says that Twitter could be cash flow positive next quarter as EU tells the company to hire more moderators.

Featured stories

Lego has a good year

Private company and plastic brick maker Lego has reported revenue of 65 billion Danish Krone, or $9.3 billion, for 2022, up 17% and a net profit of 13.8 billion Danish Krone, or $2 billion, up 4%.

Lego has been working hard on the digital side of the business. CEO Niels Christiansen told the FT, “We know very well how to immerse consumers into the Lego universe in stores. We’re working very hard to create that feeling of getting into the Lego brand universe also digitally.”

The company has already announced a collaboration in the metaverse with Epic Games, with details still to come. The success of games such as Minecraft and Roblox have shown that the joy of building with bricks indeed transfers to the virtual world.

Lego also opened 155 new stores in 2022 with roughly half of those being in China. Selling bricks still requires bricks and mortar.

The content we're consuming today

• WSJ on YouTube: Twitter's Layoffs: How Musk's Company Is Operating With Limited Staff.

• Payments Dive: PayPal CFO hits the exit.

• Efinancialcareers: 46-year-old Goldman trader with a $35m bonus decides it's time for a rest.

Off-balance sheet items

• 96-year-old David Attenborough’s new BBC series ‘Wild Isles’ shows that the UK has wildlife as ‘dramatic and spectacular’ as anywhere else. Here is the trailer.

The bottom line

The bottom line from yesterday took an interesting turn: