Famous Bankruptcies & Business Collapses
Company↕ | Year↕ | Industry↕ | Peak Value↕ | Cause↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lehman Brothers | 2008 | Investment Banking | $691B assets | Subprime mortgage exposure, overleveraged | Largest bankruptcy in US history, triggered 2008 financial crisis |
Enron | 2001 | Energy | $65B | Massive accounting fraud, off-balance-sheet entities | Biggest corporate fraud scandal, led to Sarbanes-Oxley Act |
WorldCom | 2002 | Telecommunications | $175B market cap | Accounting fraud inflating assets by $11B | Second-largest bankruptcy at the time, CEO jailed |
General Motors | 2009 | Automotive | $56B revenue | Declining sales, pension liabilities, 2008 recession | Largest industrial bankruptcy ever, government bailout |
Washington Mutual | 2008 | Banking | $327B assets | Subprime mortgage losses, bank run | Largest bank failure in US history, acquired by JPMorgan |
Wirecard | 2020 | Fintech | $24B market cap | Fabricated $2.1B in cash balances | Germany's biggest post-war corporate fraud |
FTX | 2022 | Cryptocurrency | $32B valuation | Misuse of customer funds, fraud | Sam Bankman-Fried convicted, crypto credibility crisis |
Theranos | 2018 | Healthcare Tech | $9B valuation | Fraudulent blood-testing technology | Elizabeth Holmes convicted, Silicon Valley cautionary tale |
Toys R Us | 2017 | Retail | $11B revenue | Leveraged buyout debt, Amazon competition | Childhood brand killed by private equity debt |
Blockbuster | 2010 | Entertainment | 9,000 stores | Failed to adapt to streaming | Turned down buying Netflix for $50M |
Pan Am | 1991 | Aviation | World's largest airline | Lockerbie bombing, fuel costs, deregulation | Defined the jet age, ceased after 64 years |
Kodak | 2012 | Photography | $31B market cap | Failed film-to-digital transition | Invented the technology that killed them |
Bear Stearns | 2008 | Investment Banking | $20B market cap | Subprime hedge fund collapse | First Wall Street casualty of 2008, sold at $2/share |
Sears | 2018 | Retail | Largest US retailer (1980s) | Underinvestment, asset stripping, Amazon | Sears catalog pioneered mail-order retail |
Silicon Valley Bank | 2023 | Banking | $209B assets | Interest rate risk, Twitter-fueled bank run | Collapsed in 48 hours, fastest bank run ever |
Arthur Andersen | 2002 | Accounting | Big Five firm | Shredding Enron documents | 85,000 employees lost jobs, firm destroyed |
Nortel Networks | 2009 | Telecom | $250B market cap | Dot-com bust, accounting scandal | Was Canada's most valuable company |
Swissair | 2002 | Aviation | Flying Bank of Switzerland | Aggressive expansion, 9/11 aftermath | Grounded entire fleet overnight |
Credit Suisse | 2023 | Banking | $90B market cap | Archegos losses, Greensill scandal | 167-year-old bank, emergency UBS merger |
Chrysler | 2009 | Automotive | $48B revenue | Cash crunch during recession | Merged with Fiat post-bankruptcy |
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This dataset contains 20 entries, each with multiple sortable, filterable columns. The full table is visible on this page and can be downloaded as a CSV, JSON, or Excel file.
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