WeWork announced Friday it plans to enter public markets through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in a transaction that raises $1.3 billion for the office-sharing firm. The transaction with BowX Acquisition Corp. is the latest instance in which a prominent company eschews a traditional initial public offering in favor of combining with an entity like BowX that has been specifically established by investors for such a merger. WeWork was given an enterprise value of $9 billion in the transaction. jum-jmb/jm