Norwegian Air: a low-cost long-haul push that ended in a smaller airline
Norwegian turned down two IAG approaches in 2018, then lost its long-haul network in the pandemic and came back as a smaller, profitable Nordic…
Tata Nano: the one lakh car that buyers did not want to be seen in
Tata Motors promised a car for Rs 1 lakh in 2008 and took 203,000 bookings, but annual sales peaked at 74,527 and by 2019…
Toys “R” Us: a leveraged buyout and a debt it never escaped
A $6.6 billion buyout in 2005 left Toys "R" Us with roughly $5 billion of debt and $400 million a year in interest, and…
Boeing: the 737 MAX crashes and a crisis of oversight
Two 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people in five months, grounded the jet for about 20 months and cost Boeing an estimated $18.6 billion…
Quibi: $1.75 billion on short video that viewers did not pay for
Quibi raised $1.75 billion for a paid, phone-only video service that aimed at 7 million subscribers in year one, and closed on 21 October…
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,…
Nokia: how the world’s largest phone maker ended up selling its handset business to Microsoft
Nokia sold 437.1 million devices in 2007 and held 38% of the market, yet in 2013 it sold its handset business to Microsoft for…
