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> Companies that manufacture things people don't want go out of business. Do they, though? When was the last a time a really big company went bankrupt?
by gdsimoes 2y ago
> Companies that manufacture things people don't want go out of business.
Do they, though? When was the last a time a really big company went bankrupt?
- toomuchtodo 2y ago2008. Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_in_the_United_State...
- dchftcs 2y agoThey manufactured things people wanted, but shouldn't have wanted...
- bobthepanda 2y agoGM and Chrysler also went bankrupt the year after. Silicon Valley Bank was actually the third largest bankruptcy in US history, which is news to me. And apparently Signature Bank was fourth. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096794/largest-bankruptcies-usa-by-assets/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096794/largest-bankrupt...
- toomuchtodo 2y agoMF Global in 2011 as well, but not terribly big comparatively speaking.
- qeternity 2y agoThe point is not that lots of companies run around making things people don't want and go bankrupt. The point is that's what would happen, and because of that, companies focus on making things people actually do want. Look at what happened the Facebook stock over the last few years as they rebranded to Meta and started spending wildly. The market whipped them into shape, and rewarded them handsomely.
- eru 2y agoThough Facebook/Meta is actually a bit of a weak example, because it is very much controlled by its founder, who can outvote any public shareholder. So any compliance with the 'wishes of market' was somewhat voluntary.
- massysett 2y agoGeneral Motors, 2009
- kristofferR 2y agoI'm pretty sure he meant chapter 7 (business death), that's the colloquial use of "went out of business".
- massysett 2y agoVery well, Sears Roebuck is an even better example then even if it did not file for bankruptcy because it went from cornerstone of US culture to practically "went out of business."
- kortilla 2y agoSilicon Valley Bank Revlon Avaya Talen Hertz
- slater 2y agoEnron, 2007
- jpollock 2y agoNorthern Telecom - 2013 Alcatel-Lucent - 2016 (Bell Labs/AT&T Technologies/Western Electric)
- vel0city 2y agoAlcatel-Lucent didn't go bankrupt and out of business. They were acquired by Nokia and have had chunks spun off and sold to other companies. Nortel is a good example though. That was a big one.
- agent281 2y agoSilicon Valley Bank and First Republic went bankrupt last year. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_States_banking_crisis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_States_banking_c...
- WalterBright 2y agoGM, Brooks Brothers, Washington Mutual, JC Penney, Hertz, Blockbuster, Sears, WeWork, Kodak, ...