Troubled workplace provider WeWork has sold community meeting platform provider Meetup to a consortium of investors led by AlleyCorp.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Fortune reported today that Meetup sold for a fraction of the $156 million that WeWork paid to acquire the company in 2017.

“This acquisition provides the long-term capital to ensure that Meetup focuses on what is most important: the organizers who make Meetup successful, our passionate members and our dedicated employees,” David Siegel, chief executive officer of Meetup, said in a statement. “We are excited to continue on our mission of empowering personal growth through real human connections, and I’m happy to have brought in a team of smart investors who share and support the same values.”

Meetup emerged from the cinders of the dot-com crash in 2002 and became a market leader in organizing community meetups — particularly during the Web 2.0 era before the emergence of social networking giants such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

The company organizes in-person meetups, something that during the coronavirus pandemic is neither practical nor legal depending on the state or country. Meetup itself is now pitching itself as “fostering human connection” with support for online events.

The decision to sell Meetup comes after a tumultuous year for the company and that was even before COVID-19 prevented people from gathering in co-working spaces.

WeWork, having acquired $9.85 billion in funding at the time, announced in April that it had filed its paperwork to go public. Founded in 2010, WeWork was the world’s largest co-working space provider and the future seemed bright for a company that included among its customers Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. and Citrix Systems Inc.

In August, WeWork launched its initial public offering prospectus that revealed that not only was the company not profitable but was also facing increasing losses. Investors didn’t find the IPO offering appealing and come September it was reported that WeWork was cutting its IPO valuation by half and was considering postponing its listing.

Then things went from bad to worse. Chief Executive Officer Adam Neumann was forced to step down Sept. 24 following allegations that he had a drug problem and displayed other erratic behavior, including an apparent desire to be president of the world, live forever and become the world’s first trillionaire. Added to the mix was the allegation that Rebekah Neumann, WeWork’s co-founder and Neumann’s wife, once fired staff because she disliked their “energy,” and that she pushed to “infuse spiritualism” into the company.

SoftBank took control of the company in October with an $8 billion financing package. SoftBank, Japan’s largest telecommunications company and a prolific tech investor, is itself now in trouble, with its debt dropping to junk status as its investments crash and burn during the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest blow for SoftBank came with internet satellite company OneWeb, another portfolio company, filing for bankruptcy last week.

Image: Meetup