5 ms·
Sobering stats on business failures
- csense 14y agoWhy are acquisitions or sales of businesses classified as failures? (I guess the answer is obvious: To inflate the numbers enough to make a sensational headline.)
- fiatmoney 14y agoFor that matter, bankruptcy (at least the Chapter 11 variety) is failure in some sense, but is intended to allow the company to continue operating. You'll notice GM is still around.
- csense 14y agoFrom a shareholder's view, bankruptcy is failure. I believe that most bankruptcy cases end up giving ownership of the company to creditors and wiping out pre-bankruptcy shareholders entirely.
- cma 14y agoAnd what percentage of the 71 have been bailed out by the government at one time or another?
- rwmj 14y agoI think you mean "surprisingly 71 companies survive from the original 1955 Fortune 500".
- kevinpet 14y agoPoorly written article. No idea what exactly it's trying to say or what the criteria for not "remaining". It looks like it means that only 71 of the 500 in 1955 are still on the Fortune 500. Some dubious data doesn't even support the claims they are supposed to support. Apparently failing during a recession is now "digital darwinism" as opposed to "how business has worked since agriculture began". It was posted here with a misleading title of "71 of 1955 Fortune 500 remain". I would have skipped this article if it was posted with the curent (correct, from article) title, and would have been better off for it.
- thoughtcriminal 14y agoIn terms of wordsmithing, the article is solidly written, but it doesn't provide tactics. That, and this is stuff most HN readers already know.