Indian based OYO makes a big play into the USA market by purchasing the Motel 6 brand from Blackstone real estate. With over 157,000 hotels in 32 markets, OYO is a major hotel player in almost every market except for North America. By purchasing Motel 6, they now have a sizeable network to compete with.

ICYMI: OYO has a Workspaces brand that they have been slowing growing out of just being a third party aggregator to include and offer workspace at their hotel locations.

Blackstone announced their acquisition of Village Hotels from KSL Capital Partners. The 22-hotel group also own and run VWorks, a coworking brand based within their "well-located assets in large regional cities and suburban areas across the UK".

Why this may matter: ICYMI Blackstone own 70-location brand Fora (the merged entity of The Office Group and Fora) and were exploring a $1.9B sale of the group. Capital Markets are closely watching this sale, as its one of the deals that could set precedent for just how much above "zero dollars per square foot" a flex space business can be valued at.

Tiger-Lily Beck and Demi Smith share a fun interview with Olly Olsen, co-founder of The Office Group, for the newly launched Flex and The City.

They starting with what his teachers thought about him (the term "by far the worst student I have had in my career" was used). They also look into the dynamic of the cofounder relationship with Charlie Green, first clients, touring King Charles around the space, brand-building, rebranding, and feelings around the Blackstone deal.

In what seems to be exclusively email-gated content Seeking Alpha, Bloomberg and The Telegraph report that the PE firm is having ‘informal talks’ to sell The Office Group for $1.9B.

ICYMI: Blackstone acquired a majority stake at a valuation of $640M in 2017. Merged with Fora at a $1.9B valuation in 2022. Now run 70 locations.

ICYMI: The Office Group (TOG) was mostly acquired by Blackstone at a valuation of $640M in 2017. In 2022 TOG merged with with Brockton Capital’s Fora, which was valued at £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) at the time of the merger.

Together the brands run 70 locations, 61 of which are in central London – making them by their own accounts the largest flex operator in the UK capital. A recent press release also announced that they would rebrand all the workspaces under the "Fora" brand.