WeWork CEO Adam Neumann announced Tuesday he is stepping down after a uproar over governance and valuation just as the company was planning to go public.

Vice Chairman Sebastian Gunningham, a former Amazon exec, and CFO Artie Minson, formerly of AOL and Time Warner Cable, will take over as co-CEOs, while Neumann will be nonexecutive chairman, the company said. The new CEOs are expected to remain in those roles permanently, the company said.

"While our business has never been stronger, in recent weeks, the scrutiny directed toward me has become a significant distraction, and I have decided that it is in the best interest of the company to step down as chief executive," Neumann said in a statement.

Neumann's future at WeWork, which offers coworking rental space around the world, has been in question as the company has been preparing for an initial public offering. The company delayed its IPO after releasing its S-1 filing to skepticism about its corporate governance and valuation. WeWork said in a statement last week that it still plans to go public this year. However, several people familiar with the board's thinking told CNBC that an IPO is now unlikely this year.

Neumann's voting shares will be reduced in power from 10:1 to 3:1, a source confirmed to CNBC, meaning he will no longer have majority voting control. Neumann is the company's largest individual stakeholder with about 115 million shares, and the ownership structure gave him a tremendous amount of control.

SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son, who has invested billions of dollars in WeWork, led the charge to remove Neumann, CNBC has reported.