When Big Companies Die
Corporate autopsies and post-mortems. Read why the world's biggest businesses collapsed — and what you can learn from their failures.
Latest Autopsies
WeWork Inc.
From $47 Billion to Zero: The WeWork Implosion
WeWork was never a tech company — it was a real estate company with a charismatic founder and a dangerous lease model. At its $47 billion SoftBank valuation, WeWork was losing $219,000 per hour. The IPO collapsed when its S-1 filing revealed the staggering gap between narrative and reality. It filed for Chapter 11 in November 2023.
Credit Suisse Group AG
167 Years of Swiss Banking Destroyed by a Decade of Scandals
Credit Suisse wasn't killed by a single event — it died from a thousand scandals. Spying on executives, money laundering for drug cartels, a $5.5 billion loss from Archegos, $10 billion in frozen Greensill funds — each scandal chipped away at the trust that is a bank's only real asset. In March 2023, depositors pulled $10 billion per day. UBS acquired it for $3.2 billion in a government-brokered shotgun wedding.
SVB Financial Group (Silicon Valley Bank)
48 Hours: How Twitter Killed a $200 Billion Bank
Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 48 hours — the largest U.S. bank failure since 2008 and the first Twitter-driven bank run in history. SVB had loaded up on long-dated Treasury bonds during the zero-interest-rate era. When the Fed hiked rates, those bonds lost billions in value. SVB announced a $2.25 billion capital raise on a Wednesday. By Friday, depositors — a uniquely concentrated group of VCs and tech founders — had pulled $42 billion. The FDIC seized the bank.
FTX Trading Ltd.
The $8 Billion Crypto Fraud
FTX went from a $32 billion valuation to bankruptcy in 10 days. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. Customer funds were secretly transferred to Alameda Research, FTX's sister hedge fund, to cover losses.
Archegos Capital Management
$20 Billion Vanished in 48 Hours: The Secret Leverage Bomb
Bill Hwang turned $200 million into $36 billion using total return swaps — derivatives that let him build massive positions without disclosing them. When ViacomCBS stock dropped, Archegos's hidden leverage imploded. The banks that had lent him money (Credit Suisse lost $5.5B, Nomura $2.9B) were forced to liquidate positions in a fire sale. Total losses: $20+ billion in two days.
Greensill Capital
The $10 Billion Supply Chain Fantasy
Lex Greensill convinced investors — including Credit Suisse clients and SoftBank's Vision Fund — that his supply chain finance firm was worth billions. It wasn't. Greensill Capital packaged invoices from risky, concentrated counterparties (including Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance) and sold them as 'safe as cash' investments. When GFG defaulted, the entire house of cards collapsed, freezing $10 billion in CS funds.
Nikola Corporation
The Truck That Rolled Downhill: A $30 Billion Fraud on Video
Nikola claimed to have built a hydrogen-electric semi-truck. Founder Trevor Milton raised billions from investors and partnered with GM on the strength of a video showing the Nikola One 'in motion.' Hindenburg Research revealed the truck was actually rolling downhill — the motors were off. Milton was convicted of securities fraud in 2022. Nikola filed Chapter 11 in 2025.
Wirecard AG
The €1.9 Billion That Didn't Exist
German fintech darling Wirecard rose to DAX 30 status before collapsing when auditors discovered €1.9 billion in 'cash balances' that simply didn't exist. CEO Markus Braun was arrested. COO Jan Marsalek fled to Russia. It was the biggest accounting scandal in post-war German history.
Luckin Coffee Inc.
$310 Million in Fake Sales: The Chinese Starbucks Fraud
Luckin Coffee claimed it would overtake Starbucks in China with 4,500 stores and AI-powered coffee. It went public on NASDAQ at a $4.2 billion valuation. Then an anonymous report revealed that Luckin had fabricated $310 million in sales — more than half of its reported revenue. The stock crashed 80% in a day, the CEO was fired, and the company was delisted. It later emerged that the fraud was orchestrated by the COO and several regional managers.
The Boeing Company
346 Dead, $20B in Losses: How Boeing Traded Safety for Speed
Two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed within 5 months, killing 346 people. The cause: a flawed flight control system (MCAS) that Boeing had rushed into production, hid from pilots, and failed to properly document for the FAA. Boeing cut corners to compete with Airbus's A320neo. The MAX was grounded for 20 months. Boeing's cost: $20+ billion in fines, compensation, and lost revenue — plus 346 lives that can never be recovered.
Sears Holdings Corporation
The Hedge Fund Manager Who Killed America's Amazon
Sears was the Amazon of the 20th century — the original everything store, with a catalog that sold houses, cars, and everything in between. Then hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert bought it and ran it into the ground with a singularly destructive management philosophy: pit divisions against each other for resources, cut investment to the bone, and extract value until there was nothing left. Sears filed Chapter 11 in 2018 after 125 years.
Theranos Inc.
The $9 Billion Blood Test That Never Worked
Theranos claimed its Edison device could run 200+ tests from a single drop of blood. It couldn't. Elizabeth Holmes raised $945 million from investors including Rupert Murdoch, the Walton family, and Betsy DeVos — all while knowing the technology didn't work. The company dissolved in 2018 after SEC fraud charges.