Comments on: The 25 Worst Business Failures in History

By: fang

fang — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:34:07 +0000

How about WORLDCOMM, all the US Railroad Companies, Tyco … ?

By: Donald

Donald — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:34:14 +0000

etoys? (one time market cap was > Toys-R-Us!)
webvan?
Leaman Bros? 150+ year old company?
Fanne Mae? (Government Fraud)
Freddy Mac? (Government Fraud)

By: Stijn Boterberg

Stijn Boterberg — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:46:14 +0000

John Delorean was proven NOT guilty..

By: Vic

Vic — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:15:19 +0000

Wow. Great compilation of the world’s worst business failures. Any references? I really admire how you compile the article.

Technology industry (airplanes, cars, electronics and computers) are big losers in the list. Specially when a company does not apply innovation.

By: website

website — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:16:31 +0000

FTA (about Bethlehem Steel):

"However, the company never adjusted to the new service-based economy that gained ground in the 1990s."

What does that mean? That every company that produced a product was supposed to become service-based in the 90s??

Bethlehem Steels failure had everything to do with the cheap steel imports from other countries and poor management.

By: zebrachick4

zebrachick4 — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:19:10 +0000

lmao Titanic a business failure. Um…yep

Enron is the definition of business failure.

I disagree with C64 and Poloroid being failures though. Those were good for the times when they were around. They might be gone now but they had good years.

By: Comet

Comet — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:33:32 +0000

Hmm, probably just a bad timing for Edison Records.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:59:28 +0000

Without failure you can’t a appreciate sucess. No matter which instance you look at it helped progress that industry in one way or another.

By: Zang

Zang — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:36:39 +0000

Beta a flop? In what world? In the consumer market, it did okay (but not spectacular) and held out for almost a decade against VHS, but because of it’s technical superiority (higher-resolution, better tracking, early adoption of Hi-Fi Stereo) to VHS, it thrived in the broadcast market. Betamax spawned the Betacam format which is STILL IN USE in some markets today.

If you want a spectacular video format failure, howabout TeD (Television Electronic Disc), LaserDisc, or the DRMed to all hell DIVX (Digital Video Express) DVD?

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:12:40 +0000

in regards to CBGBs, the venue was not shuttered to make way for a men’s store. It was shuttered because their rent was raised by the owners of the bulding, the not-for-profit Bowery Development Committee(BDC).

Hilly looked into moving CBGBs to Las Vegas or contemplated moving it but it didn’t pan out. John Varvatos setting up shop in CBGBs wasn’t announced until a year after the fact – and several months after Hilly Kristal died. Furthermore, Varvatos promised to “do justice” to CBGBs in the design. In short, it could have been worse – it could have become a Starbucks.

At any rate while the club was open for 33 years, and while a cultural powerhouse, it was never really in financially sound shape. Rumors of its demise were always around – so respectfully, i don’t think the closing of CBGB is anywhere near even the closing of the Fashion Cafe – and certainly does not belong on this list.

And if your decision to include it was based on the loss of the historic concert venue, the Palladium in NYC (think of the cover of London Calling – *that’s* the palladium)was demolished to make way for an NYU dorm. That is a loss.