Shares in WeWork were suspended on Monday as Wall Street prepared for the shared office space provider to file for bankruptcy. The struggling company's stock trading was halted ahead of the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange, following reports of an imminent Chapter 11 protection filing.

By late morning in New York, WeWork had not released a statement regarding the suspension of trading. The company, which was once valued at $47 billion on the private market, has seen a catastrophic decline of 98% in its share price this year, leaving it with a market capitalization of less than $50 million. In August, WeWork raised concerns about its ability to continue operating as it grappled with $2.9 billion in net long-term debt and over $13 billion in long-term leases.

Despite the Wall Street Journal's report on WeWork's potential bankruptcy filing, the company stated last week that it does not comment on speculation and has not provided any immediate response to Monday's trading suspension.

WeWork has been unable to recover since the departure of its founder, Adam Neumann, in September 2019 amidst a failed attempt to go public and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company's plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019 raised concerns about its long-term viability, profitability, and leadership. It eventually went public in 2021, while Neumann received a $445 million payout package upon his exit.

Founded in 2010, WeWork leases office buildings on long-term leases and sells short-term memberships for co-working spaces. The company's valuation significantly declined to $10 billion following the publication of its S-1 prospectus. The pandemic forced WeWork to close numerous co-working spaces as remote working became the new norm.

Despite the challenges, WeWork still maintains a vast commercial real estate portfolio, with 777 locations across 39 countries as of June, housing approximately 906,000 desks. In an effort to adapt to the post-Covid world, WeWork aimed to position itself as a specialist provider of flexible office space. However, the company continued to incur significant losses, reporting a $696 million loss in the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, Adam Neumann has embarked on a new venture called Flow, which focuses on residential real estate. The startup received $350 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz last year.

As WeWork faces an uncertain future and the possibility of bankruptcy, the fate of the once high-flying shared office space provider remains to be seen.