What are the most spectacular business failures of the past 25 years?
March 12, 2022 11:17 AM Subscribe
I'm working on a short piece about how "____ should be run more like a business" arguments are... ill-founded, to put it charitably, and hoping to broaden my scope of business disasters, especially ones that caused large social harms.
Ideally, these are close enough to household names that many people will twig to them, and connected to enough human impact that people will sense the catastrophic nature of the failure with just a short sentence.
A couple of f'rinstances:
"The last 25 years" because I want to forestall "but things aren't done this way any more" arguments, so no Triangle Shirtwaist etc.
In other words, when somebody says "my local library should be run more like a business!", what would you use to fill in the blank for "oh, you mean a business like _____, which _______?"
Ideally, these are close enough to household names that many people will twig to them, and connected to enough human impact that people will sense the catastrophic nature of the failure with just a short sentence.
A couple of f'rinstances:
- Enron, with $45 billion lost to fraud, and crippling an entire state with electrical outages;.
- BP, responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil platform disaster, which killed 11 people and caused the largest oil spill in history.
- Trump University, a "massive scam" that lost a $25 million lawsuit launched by defrauded students.
"The last 25 years" because I want to forestall "but things aren't done this way any more" arguments, so no Triangle Shirtwaist etc.
In other words, when somebody says "my local library should be run more like a business!", what would you use to fill in the blank for "oh, you mean a business like _____, which _______?"
Canadian Business did a pretty good piece on the failure of Target in Canada, despite its arrival in a market where, thanks to Canadian consumers' cross-border shopping habits or frequent vacations to the U.S., it enjoyed ready-made consumer goodwill and brand familiarity. And it managed to shit the bed spectacularly.
The Last Days of Target:
The grand opening of Target Canada was set to begin in one month, and Tony Fisher needed to know whether the company was actually ready. In February 2013, about a dozen senior-level employees gathered at the company’s Mississauga, Ont., headquarters to offer updates on the state of their departments.
[...]
Roughly two years from that date, Target Canada filed for creditor protection, marking the end of its first international foray and one of the most confounding sagas in Canadian corporate history. The debacle cost the parent company billions of dollars, sullied its reputation and put roughly 17,600 people out of work. Target’s arrival was highly anticipated by consumers and feared by rival retailers. The chain, whose roots stretch back to 1902, had perfected its retail strategy and grown into a US$70-billion titan in its home country. Target was a careful, analytical and efficient organization with a highly admired corporate culture. The corporation’s entry into Canada was uncharacteristically bold—not just for Target, but for any retailer. Under Steinhafel, the company paid $1.8 billion for the leases to the entire Zellers chain in 2011 and formulated a plan to open 124 locations by the end of 2013. Not only that, but the chain expected to be profitable within its first year of operations.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:44 AM on March 12, 2022 [10 favorites]
The Last Days of Target:
The grand opening of Target Canada was set to begin in one month, and Tony Fisher needed to know whether the company was actually ready. In February 2013, about a dozen senior-level employees gathered at the company’s Mississauga, Ont., headquarters to offer updates on the state of their departments.
[...]
Roughly two years from that date, Target Canada filed for creditor protection, marking the end of its first international foray and one of the most confounding sagas in Canadian corporate history. The debacle cost the parent company billions of dollars, sullied its reputation and put roughly 17,600 people out of work. Target’s arrival was highly anticipated by consumers and feared by rival retailers. The chain, whose roots stretch back to 1902, had perfected its retail strategy and grown into a US$70-billion titan in its home country. Target was a careful, analytical and efficient organization with a highly admired corporate culture. The corporation’s entry into Canada was uncharacteristically bold—not just for Target, but for any retailer. Under Steinhafel, the company paid $1.8 billion for the leases to the entire Zellers chain in 2011 and formulated a plan to open 124 locations by the end of 2013. Not only that, but the chain expected to be profitable within its first year of operations.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:44 AM on March 12, 2022 [10 favorites]
Downfall is a recent documentary about how changes in the corporate culture at Boeing led the company to overlook safety flaws in the 737 Max plane, resulting in two plane crashes that killed almost 450 people.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:45 AM on March 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:45 AM on March 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Purdue Pharma & the opioid epidemic.
posted by are-coral-made at 11:46 AM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by are-coral-made at 11:46 AM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
You don't hear a lot about it but Disney's Go Network comes to mind. The figure I recall hearing back in the day was two billion dollar write off ...
posted by philip-random at 11:48 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 11:48 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
There's more than way way we might consider a business to have "failed."
There are businesses that lose money, whether that's because they're based on an outright fraud like Theranos, they have a bad business plan like Disney Go, the market changes and they can't adapt like Borders...
Then there are businesses that make money, but fail in the sense that they make the consumer experience worse in pursuit of profit. Amazon is a massive success from a profit perspective, but in its pursuit of profit it has let its online catalog - including of books - be choked with fraudulent or poor-quality goods, ultimately leading to a worse consumer experience in pursuit of profit. Gosh, most cable/internet companies are like this too. Imagine if your public library was like DirectTV.
The second one is more pertinent if you're making an anti-privatization point.
This article has some recent example of privatization gone wrong and costing more money or delivering worse services (or both). You can find a lot more. I guess they're not pithy and shocking in the way the Boeing example is, but I'd go for them if it's a longer conversation instead.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 11:56 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
There are businesses that lose money, whether that's because they're based on an outright fraud like Theranos, they have a bad business plan like Disney Go, the market changes and they can't adapt like Borders...
Then there are businesses that make money, but fail in the sense that they make the consumer experience worse in pursuit of profit. Amazon is a massive success from a profit perspective, but in its pursuit of profit it has let its online catalog - including of books - be choked with fraudulent or poor-quality goods, ultimately leading to a worse consumer experience in pursuit of profit. Gosh, most cable/internet companies are like this too. Imagine if your public library was like DirectTV.
The second one is more pertinent if you're making an anti-privatization point.
This article has some recent example of privatization gone wrong and costing more money or delivering worse services (or both). You can find a lot more. I guess they're not pithy and shocking in the way the Boeing example is, but I'd go for them if it's a longer conversation instead.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 11:56 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
It could also be interesting to focus on cases where the companies continue to survive or thrive without any spectacular implosion, yet provide terrible service or generally inflict harm on the rest of the world.
Oh, you mean a business like a bank, which charges you $5 per month for having a library account, and if you return books at the same time as borrowing new ones, will order the operations to process the "lend new books" before "accept returned books" so that you exceed the "max borrowed books limit" for 5 seconds, so they can charge you a library overdraft fee of $100 / book?
posted by are-coral-made at 11:57 AM on March 12, 2022 [11 favorites]
Oh, you mean a business like a bank, which charges you $5 per month for having a library account, and if you return books at the same time as borrowing new ones, will order the operations to process the "lend new books" before "accept returned books" so that you exceed the "max borrowed books limit" for 5 seconds, so they can charge you a library overdraft fee of $100 / book?
posted by are-coral-made at 11:57 AM on March 12, 2022 [11 favorites]
this is maybe going for the throat, but as someone who doesn't live in the US: oh, do you mean like the entire US healthcare system
posted by are-coral-made at 12:03 PM on March 12, 2022 [20 favorites]
posted by are-coral-made at 12:03 PM on March 12, 2022 [20 favorites]
For the running of libraries as if they were banks, you can also follow the inspirational leadership of Wells Fargo, where librarians, pressured by management to hit performance targets, sign each library visitor up to multiple library accounts without their consent.
posted by are-coral-made at 12:06 PM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by are-coral-made at 12:06 PM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Peloton has been run so poorly that one of the primary investors made a scathing presentation last month in a (successful) attempt to shame the CEO into quitting.
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am not sure this is catastrophic enough for what you're working on, but even profitable enterprises can be stripped for parts and bankrupted - for example, Toys R Us.
The Texas power grid may have some salient characteristics and a memorable recent, catastrophic failure of something that SHOULD be a public service. Same with PG&E in California, conducting loadshedding/blackouts when people need air conditioning the most.
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Texas power grid may have some salient characteristics and a memorable recent, catastrophic failure of something that SHOULD be a public service. Same with PG&E in California, conducting loadshedding/blackouts when people need air conditioning the most.
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love to tell people about the Red Lobster Endless Crab Disaster.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:23 PM on March 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Snarl Furillo at 12:23 PM on March 12, 2022 [7 favorites]
Quibi:
The service raised $1.75 billion from investors. It launched in April 2020, but shut down in December 2020 after falling short of its subscriber projections. In January 2021, Quibi's content library was sold to Roku, Inc. for less than $100 million.posted by arcolz at 12:27 PM on March 12, 2022 [9 favorites]
Yahoo is notorious for buying up companies, ruining them, and reselling them for pennies on the dollar.
Useful against the BE MORE INNOVATIVE attacks.
The chuds who bought del.icio.us did similarly, though that's hardly a household name.
posted by humbug at 12:41 PM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Useful against the BE MORE INNOVATIVE attacks.
The chuds who bought del.icio.us did similarly, though that's hardly a household name.
posted by humbug at 12:41 PM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
If you and the mods will forgive me, I would like to address the spirit of your Ask rather than the letter.
I believe anyone giving the "(common good) should be run more like a business" premise is arguing from either inadequately considered regurgitated talking points, or bad faith; they will dismiss every case you make with 'but they aren't a library' or 'they were bad people and not like us (your community)'. You won't win.
I would use private sector 'successes' instead:
* Telco companies using their profits to insure that public-sector and competitive services are not possible, and maintainig an overpriced monopoly or simply refusing to build in 'unprofitable' areas.
* Publishers ratcheting up e-book prices to make it impossible for public libraries to afford them. They want libraries replaced with their businesses -- full-price non-transferale sales and very limited rentals (like college textbook sales/return gouging). That's what a library run like a proper business looks like.
* Commercial news media gives you only what will keep you engaged/ outraged/ scared/ aroused, and very little of what you need to know to be an informed citizen* and consumer.
A library should certainly be run so as not to squander taxpayers' money, but a library is most effective when it serves the poorest -- the most unprofitable -- members of your community: it can help lift them into becoming better citizens* and net tax revenue generators (and profitable within the context of the public sector.)
Therefore, a public library cannot be both profitable/revenue-neutral and effective.
* - meant in the general sense -- not trying to be exclusionary here
posted by zaixfeep at 12:46 PM on March 12, 2022 [19 favorites]
I believe anyone giving the "(common good) should be run more like a business" premise is arguing from either inadequately considered regurgitated talking points, or bad faith; they will dismiss every case you make with 'but they aren't a library' or 'they were bad people and not like us (your community)'. You won't win.
I would use private sector 'successes' instead:
* Telco companies using their profits to insure that public-sector and competitive services are not possible, and maintainig an overpriced monopoly or simply refusing to build in 'unprofitable' areas.
* Publishers ratcheting up e-book prices to make it impossible for public libraries to afford them. They want libraries replaced with their businesses -- full-price non-transferale sales and very limited rentals (like college textbook sales/return gouging). That's what a library run like a proper business looks like.
* Commercial news media gives you only what will keep you engaged/ outraged/ scared/ aroused, and very little of what you need to know to be an informed citizen* and consumer.
A library should certainly be run so as not to squander taxpayers' money, but a library is most effective when it serves the poorest -- the most unprofitable -- members of your community: it can help lift them into becoming better citizens* and net tax revenue generators (and profitable within the context of the public sector.)
Therefore, a public library cannot be both profitable/revenue-neutral and effective.
* - meant in the general sense -- not trying to be exclusionary here
posted by zaixfeep at 12:46 PM on March 12, 2022 [19 favorites]
In some parts of the country, people will be very familiar with how Bill Knapp's destroyed itself.
Bill Knapp's was a restaurant chain in the midwest. Most of the people who went there were elderly. They decided to appeal to young people by completely changing the decor, playing rock music, and adding video games and TVs. They also decided to save money by changing their "home-made" food for food provided by local food services. They drove away their elderly clientele and never attracted young people. The whole chain ended up closing.
posted by FencingGal at 12:47 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bill Knapp's was a restaurant chain in the midwest. Most of the people who went there were elderly. They decided to appeal to young people by completely changing the decor, playing rock music, and adding video games and TVs. They also decided to save money by changing their "home-made" food for food provided by local food services. They drove away their elderly clientele and never attracted young people. The whole chain ended up closing.
posted by FencingGal at 12:47 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
The combination of outsourced manufacturing and just-in-time component delivery gave us the current supply chain crisis. It's a system that has no defense against upstream delays, so any single interruption may have multiple downstream effects. Housing construction is currently backlogged for garage doors. Auto manufacturing was backlogged for silicon chips. Beer brewing and bottling plants were out of aluminum cans. It's "all for the want of a horseshoe nail" writ large.
And shipping is its own nightmare. The Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking an incredible amount of trade. A ship transporting thousands of new cars recently burned and sank, due to a fire that started in one of the decks and couldn't be contained (we may never know the cause, but batteries in electric cars sure seem a likely culprit). There's been a months long traffic jam of ships outside ports on the US west coast because of manpower shortages at the Port of Los Angeles. And so on.
Be more like businesses: subject to failure due to factors outside your control!
posted by fedward at 1:23 PM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
And shipping is its own nightmare. The Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking an incredible amount of trade. A ship transporting thousands of new cars recently burned and sank, due to a fire that started in one of the decks and couldn't be contained (we may never know the cause, but batteries in electric cars sure seem a likely culprit). There's been a months long traffic jam of ships outside ports on the US west coast because of manpower shortages at the Port of Los Angeles. And so on.
Be more like businesses: subject to failure due to factors outside your control!
posted by fedward at 1:23 PM on March 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
You could look at Uber, which just loses spectacular amounts of money. You could also look at the entire real estate and financial industries, which in pursuit of spectacular amounts of money, crashed the global economy in 2008.
posted by entropone at 1:26 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by entropone at 1:26 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Comcast may be profitable but the consumer experience is terrible, and it holds a monopoly or near-monopoly in many areas. Many US consumers have had a bad customer experience with them. I find them a useful example because of this universality.
posted by nat at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by nat at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022 [5 favorites]
I agree with @zaixfeep in that the premise itself is limiting. One can be a successful business but provided horrible service, OR one can fail spectacularly and caused a ton of collateral damage as it went under. BOTH can easily serve as counter-arguments to "but XYZ should be run like a business!"
But most giant failure basically means they got out-competed. Think Xerox, Blackberry, even Blockbuster.
While banks often just don't provide much service other than basics (and has a ton of misc fees) yet are often too big to fail and get government bailout "just in case".
Then there are the places that should NOT be run like a business, such as a public service like a library, that service the poorest the most.
posted by kschang at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022
But most giant failure basically means they got out-competed. Think Xerox, Blackberry, even Blockbuster.
While banks often just don't provide much service other than basics (and has a ton of misc fees) yet are often too big to fail and get government bailout "just in case".
Then there are the places that should NOT be run like a business, such as a public service like a library, that service the poorest the most.
posted by kschang at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022
BTW a great term of art to google is "cascading failure." In a system with multiple dependencies, a single small failure that isn't caught or handled properly can result in other failures, bringing the whole system to a halt. "Lean manufacturing" is susceptible to cascading failures when components don't arrive in time. The Texas power grid last winter was a great illustration of a cascading failure where some infrastructure wasn't weather-proofed, other infrastructure was offline for scheduled maintenance, and the system was isolated enough from other power grids that they couldn't just buy or borrow power from places with more robust infrastructure. Once some components started failing, other components failed or shut down because they couldn't handle the increased load.
posted by fedward at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by fedward at 1:29 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
There's also the banking crisis of the 2000s documented by "The Big Short." Packages of debt were sliced up and bundled together into new financial units (CDOs, or Collateralized Debt Obligations) that depended on the bundled debts having been rated properly in the first place. Unfortunately the bundled debts included a whole lot of bad mortgage loans, and when those mortgages started failing at higher rates than expected, a lot of other debt that used those mortgages as collateral also failed. It destroyed a few investment banks, resulted in a number of bank mergers, and had damaging effects on the construction industry.
posted by fedward at 1:41 PM on March 12, 2022
posted by fedward at 1:41 PM on March 12, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses so far. To clarify one point, what I will write won't be covering expansive ideas around how businesses generally fail us as a society -- I'm gathering straightforward examples to reinforce a larger point that "'run like a business' can mean 'catastrophic failure' as well as 'successful innovation'."
Blockbuster is a great example: it was colossal and a household name, it was 'run like a business' and now it's gone.
So "DrugCo Inc. killed a thousand people in a failed drug trial" is right up my alley, but "the pernicious nature of pharmaceutical companies has a general aggregate effect that reverberates through healthcare and perpetuates a corporate-leaning bias in our patent system" is an excellent thing for somebody to write about, but that's not where I'm headed.
So just to reiterate and possibly clarify the ask: catastrophic business failures, in the sense that the business very publicly failed and now isn't there any more, or has made headlines for atrocities, fraud or incompetence.
posted by Shepherd at 1:47 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Blockbuster is a great example: it was colossal and a household name, it was 'run like a business' and now it's gone.
So "DrugCo Inc. killed a thousand people in a failed drug trial" is right up my alley, but "the pernicious nature of pharmaceutical companies has a general aggregate effect that reverberates through healthcare and perpetuates a corporate-leaning bias in our patent system" is an excellent thing for somebody to write about, but that's not where I'm headed.
So just to reiterate and possibly clarify the ask: catastrophic business failures, in the sense that the business very publicly failed and now isn't there any more, or has made headlines for atrocities, fraud or incompetence.
posted by Shepherd at 1:47 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
OK, thanks for clarifying. I'll try again.
How about retirement savings: Social Security vs private pensions?
posted by zaixfeep at 2:05 PM on March 12, 2022
How about retirement savings: Social Security vs private pensions?
posted by zaixfeep at 2:05 PM on March 12, 2022
WeWork (Vox post-mortem from 2019) immediately sprung to mind, even though it looks like they're still in business.
posted by itesser at 2:10 PM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by itesser at 2:10 PM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
Then there are businesses that make money, but fail in the sense that they make the consumer experience worse in pursuit of profit.
Pacific Gas & Electric. The San Bruno Pipeline Explosion might be the most well known example of their maleficence, but it's far from their only one (causing wildfires in California, etc). They even rated their own episode of American Greed (I recorded it but I'm afraid I'd kick in the TV in while watching it).
posted by gtrwolf at 3:03 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pacific Gas & Electric. The San Bruno Pipeline Explosion might be the most well known example of their maleficence, but it's far from their only one (causing wildfires in California, etc). They even rated their own episode of American Greed (I recorded it but I'm afraid I'd kick in the TV in while watching it).
posted by gtrwolf at 3:03 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh no, are-coral-made, that's not a business failure, it's designed to be that way.
posted by evilDoug at 3:10 PM on March 12, 2022
posted by evilDoug at 3:10 PM on March 12, 2022
Long-Term Capital Management was an initially successful hedge fund that imploded spectacularly in 1998, ending in a $3.6 billion bailout ($6.2 billion in 2021 dollars). There was no fraud, just risky investments, and LTCM was a darling of Wall Street before the collapse, a concrete demonstration that wealthy, successful, and supposedly brilliant businesspeople can have bad judgment.
posted by jedicus at 5:42 PM on March 12, 2022
posted by jedicus at 5:42 PM on March 12, 2022
There were so many spectacular .com failures worth mentioning. My picks:
Govworks.com, the subject of the documentary startup.com
Pets.com, which imploded I'm pretty sure because of an extravagant superbowl ad.
Digital Entertainment Network, which imploded in several scandals
etoys, which went bankrupt just 2 years after its IPO.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:49 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Govworks.com, the subject of the documentary startup.com
Pets.com, which imploded I'm pretty sure because of an extravagant superbowl ad.
Digital Entertainment Network, which imploded in several scandals
etoys, which went bankrupt just 2 years after its IPO.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:49 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Starbucks in Australia - sound business principles, absolutely botched because of context.
Borders - taken out by their property investment decisions not anything to do with the business of books but since any large business ends up with those shenanigans, it's cautionary because "will make us money" also means "will lose us money".
posted by geek anachronism at 6:28 PM on March 12, 2022
Borders - taken out by their property investment decisions not anything to do with the business of books but since any large business ends up with those shenanigans, it's cautionary because "will make us money" also means "will lose us money".
posted by geek anachronism at 6:28 PM on March 12, 2022
I don't feel like finding any special documents about it, but Mexican fast food chain Taco Cabana rapidly expanded a Florida chicken restaurant called Pollo Tropical, including the ground-up construction of a bunch of new Pollo Tropical buildings. They shut the entire brand down less than 6 months after most of the new buildings had opened.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:41 PM on March 12, 2022
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:41 PM on March 12, 2022
Juicero.
posted by oywiththepoodles at 4:25 AM on March 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by oywiththepoodles at 4:25 AM on March 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
My argument is that government is not a for-profit entity. It collects revenues (taxes) and spends them for the common good. No business could be run like that, nor should it.
posted by dbmcd at 8:59 AM on March 13, 2022
posted by dbmcd at 8:59 AM on March 13, 2022
catastrophic business failures, in the sense that the business very publicly failed and now isn't there any more, or has made headlines for atrocities, fraud or incompetence
These are a few recent examples of fraud that aren't necessarily household names:
Luckin Coffee (still a going concern, but a hot mess of fraud scandals).
uBiome (basically Theranos but for fecal samples instead of blood samples)
Wirecard.
Timeline: The rise and fall of Wirecard, a German tech champion.
Some Canadian content from the last 25 years or so:
Sino-Forest Corporation.
OSC decision re: Sino-Forest.
US$2.6-Billion Fraud Judgment Awarded Against Former Sino-Forest CEO
And, of course: Livent.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:13 AM on March 13, 2022
These are a few recent examples of fraud that aren't necessarily household names:
Luckin Coffee (still a going concern, but a hot mess of fraud scandals).
uBiome (basically Theranos but for fecal samples instead of blood samples)
Wirecard.
Timeline: The rise and fall of Wirecard, a German tech champion.
Some Canadian content from the last 25 years or so:
Sino-Forest Corporation.
OSC decision re: Sino-Forest.
US$2.6-Billion Fraud Judgment Awarded Against Former Sino-Forest CEO
And, of course: Livent.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:13 AM on March 13, 2022
One more bit of Canadian content that relates directly to "government/public institutions should be run like 'a business'" ideological cant...
Kevin O'Leary. Fortunately, his political aspirations have not been fulfilled, but all of his campaigning has centred around that one ideological trope.
Like another prominent example we shall not name, he claims to be a "successful businessman."
Except...
...every single "business" he's run has been a grift of one kind or another, most notably SoftKey/The Learning Company. Mattel acquired it from O'Leary and his business partner and, long story short, later took a massive writedown on it because it was essentially worthless. This led to the departure of Mattel's then-CEO and then-CFO.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:40 AM on March 13, 2022
Kevin O'Leary. Fortunately, his political aspirations have not been fulfilled, but all of his campaigning has centred around that one ideological trope.
Like another prominent example we shall not name, he claims to be a "successful businessman."
Except...
...every single "business" he's run has been a grift of one kind or another, most notably SoftKey/The Learning Company. Mattel acquired it from O'Leary and his business partner and, long story short, later took a massive writedown on it because it was essentially worthless. This led to the departure of Mattel's then-CEO and then-CFO.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:40 AM on March 13, 2022
Yahoo was the first thing that came to my mind. Yahoo was wildly acquisitive. It bought some well-liked companies and either made them bad or simply neglected them. It also bought a lot of questionable companies. The original business—a human-categorized index of the Web—was obviously not sustainable, but they neither capitalized on acquisitions like Delicious that could have helped, nor did they do a great job moving into search based on web crawlers. Yahoo had the chance to buy Google for $1 bn. Despite their acquisitiveness, they missed out on what would have been a good one (although they probably would have fucked that up too).
At the limit of your time frame is Worldcom, which was not so much a company as a scam that acquired companies, increasing in size until it bought MCI (then one of the major long-distance carriers), shortly after which the scam collapsed.
AOL has not failed completely—it still exists—but it had a crazy arc of growing, merging with with Time Warner as the majority partner, quickly declining, and being acquired by Verizon.
Real Networks also has not failed completely, but for a while, they were a major player in the delivery of online audio and video.
posted by adamrice at 10:57 AM on March 13, 2022
At the limit of your time frame is Worldcom, which was not so much a company as a scam that acquired companies, increasing in size until it bought MCI (then one of the major long-distance carriers), shortly after which the scam collapsed.
AOL has not failed completely—it still exists—but it had a crazy arc of growing, merging with with Time Warner as the majority partner, quickly declining, and being acquired by Verizon.
Real Networks also has not failed completely, but for a while, they were a major player in the delivery of online audio and video.
posted by adamrice at 10:57 AM on March 13, 2022
Circuit City comes to mind. American Apparel too.
Also, was going to chime in with Worldcom but adamrice juat mentioned it
posted by cubeb at 8:49 PM on March 13, 2022
Also, was going to chime in with Worldcom but adamrice juat mentioned it
posted by cubeb at 8:49 PM on March 13, 2022
software companies like turbotax spend millions lobbying to make the tax code more labyrinthine, to extort you to buy the software to do your taxes. they've also successfully lobbied to make it illegal for the federal government to offer any free service that competes with them (e.g. simple online tax filing).
posted by j_curiouser at 8:46 AM on March 14, 2022
posted by j_curiouser at 8:46 AM on March 14, 2022
i guess that's the broader category of: make life much shittier for you than it might be if public institutions could do the work.
posted by j_curiouser at 8:48 AM on March 14, 2022
posted by j_curiouser at 8:48 AM on March 14, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by coffeecat at 11:38 AM on March 12, 2022 [22 favorites]