Kate Dezarnaulds penned an interesting piece as the founder of WorkLife about a recent email she received regarding the WeWork Affiliate Network, and what this very strategic move could mean for other indie brands.

While Kate makes the case that this isn’t a moment to panic, "it is a moment to stop sleepwalking".

Further listening: This TWIC Discussion from 2024 with John Santora (CEO, WeWork), Anant Yardi (Founder, Yardi) and Jason Anderson (CEO, Vast) about the formation of this affiliate network. And this TWIC Discussion with Sam Rosen and William Sandford about the acquisition of Deskpass, Breather and Hubble.

Yardi has announced that their founder and CEO, Anant Yardi, will be transitioning into the role of Chairman, while Rob Teel will become their next CEO in 2026.

Reflecting on this change, he shared: "This transition is not a departure. It’s a continuation — one built on shared values, clear purpose and deep trust."

Yardi has officially announced the acquisition of both Deskpass and Hubble. This strategic move expands Yardi’s offerings in the flexible workspace market and strengthens its existing solutions, including Yardi Commercial, Yardi Kube and CoworkingCafe.

The acquisition will enable Yardi to provide a wider-reaching suite of tools for managing coworking spaces, from operations through to marketing to lead generation and revenue insights.

Questions to ponder:
1. Will commission structures on these platforms change, to bring them more in-line with CoworkingCafe’s no commission approach? And if they do, what does it mean for competitors for each platform like Liquidspace, FlowSpace, Desana, Upflex and Gable?
2. Does this create any longer-term ties between Industrious (who had acquired a majority of Deskpass recently) and Yardi?
3. What does this mean in relation to Anant’s big plan for a global interconnected booking experience?
4. Who will be joining the TWIC podcast to answer these and other Qs for you?

PS Got Qs you’d like answered? Let us know by replying to this email

Anant Yardi joins Gio and Jamie on the Flex Uncensored podcast for a candid conversation on leadership, vision, and the next big moves in the coworking and flex space industry.

Hector Kolonas quizzes Anant Yardi, Jason Anderson and John Santora (the CEOs at Yardi, Vast Coworking and WeWork respectively) about their partnership and the WeWork Partner Network on an exclusive episode of the This Week in Coworking Podcast.