Theranos: a blood testing promise that did not hold up
Theranos claimed a finger-prick device could run hundreds of tests, was valued at over $9 billion in 2014, and ended with Elizabeth Holmes sentenced…
WeWork: the IPO filing that exposed a business built on long leases
WeWork moved to withdraw its IPO on 30 September 2019, six weeks after revealing a $1.93 billion annual loss and $47.2 billion of lease…
Lehman Brothers: leverage, mortgages and the largest US bankruptcy
Lehman Brothers reported record profits for 2007, then filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008 with about $639 billion of assets and leverage of…
Enron: how accounting tricks hid a failing business
Enron reported $979 million of profit for 2000, yet within a year it had restated its accounts by $586 million and filed for bankruptcy,…
Uber: selling its China business to its main rival
In August 2016 Uber, losing more than $1 billion a year in China, sold its Chinese arm to Didi Chuxing for a minority stake…
Tesco: Fresh & Easy and a costly attempt to crack the US
Tesco opened Fresh & Easy in the US in 2007, took a 1.2 billion pound hit when it quit in April 2013, and its…
Target: a fast Canadian launch that ended in full retreat within two years
Target paid C$1.825 billion for Zellers leases in 2011, opened 133 Canadian stores from 2013 and shut them all by April 2015, with about…
Walmart: why the world’s largest retailer left Germany after eight years
Wal-Mart sold its 85 German stores to Metro in July 2006 at a pre-tax loss of about US$1 billion, after eight years of failing…
Starbucks: how Howard Schultz came back to reset a business that grew too fast
Howard Schultz took back the chief executive role on 7 January 2008, after shares halved in a year, then closed about 800 US stores…
Costco: low markups funded by membership fees
Costco earned $5.32 billion from membership fees in fiscal 2025, about half its operating income, which let it hold gross margin to 11.12% of…
