Business failures, costly decisions and the lessons they leave behind.
The full archive, in the appIn 2021 California sued Activision Blizzard over a 'frat boy' culture of harassment. Employees walked out, executives left, and the Bobby Kotick era ended.
Read the caseLaunched Feb 6, 2019, pulled Feb 7 — apology, a CEO flight to Harlem, and a letter to 18,000 staff: 'a powerful learning moment.'
Read the caseIn 1907, Leo Baekeland tried to replace shellac. His earlier Novolak failed. Then he invented the Bakelizer, pressed phenol and formaldehyde, and got Bakelite.
Read the caseA second Puebla Mazda dealership in three months: PROFECO sealed Mazda Angelópolis for hiding total prices and a 'no refunds' legend revealed only after paying.
Read the caseEurope's second-largest steelmaker was blocked at birth: the EC rejected the divestment remedies, and six years of litigation later the EU courts still agreed.
Read the caseHackers camped inside SKT's network for four years and stole 23.24M users' USIM keys; Korea fined it a record ₩134.79bn
Read the caseLIC's ₹20,557 crore IPO, India's largest, was subscribed 2.95 times at ₹949. On May 17, 2022 it listed at ₹872 on NSE — an 8.11% discount.
Read the case小杨哥's firm Three Sheep sold a mooncake as a Hong Kong brand with no Hong Kong stores. Regulators called it misleading, fined it ¥68.9M and suspended it.
Read the caseKuwait scrapped an approved hospital bid to save KD 15m, then spent a decade building it — and fined the job the largest delay penalty in state history.
Read the caseAt its peak in 2000 Nortel was one of the world's most valuable companies. By 2009 it was bankrupt, undone by the dot-com crash and accounting restatements.
Read the caseNinety-seven P2P lenders coordinated interest-rate caps through their association; KPPU called it price fixing and imposed one of its largest-ever penalties.
Read the caseLi-Ning's 'Chinese pride' branding collided with runway coats and hats that looked like Japanese army uniforms to viewers.
Read the caseFor years Microsoft ranked employees into fixed buckets, pitting them against each other. The system stifled collaboration and innovation; Microsoft abandoned.
Read the caseChicecream raised ¥200M as China's premium ice cream. Scandals and a founder who told critics to 'take it or leave it' killed it by 2025.
Read the caseDeloitte's $440,000 report for Australia's workforce department had fake AI-generated citations and quotes; it refunded $290,000 after academics caught it.
Read the caseNayuki, China's 'new tea first stock,' IPO'd at HK$34B in 2021. By 2026 it was HK$1.4B, 152 stores closed in one year, never a profitable year.
Read the caseThe British brand that invented the camel hair coat entered administration twice in three years. M&S bought just the name for £5M.
Read the caseA physician deactivated a server on a shared network; weak safeguards exposed 6,800 patients and led to $4.8M in HIPAA settlements.
Read the caseJames Cordier's firm sold unhedged naked options on natural gas. When prices spiked, clients lost $150M and Cordier posted a tearful apology.
Read the caseOrdinary confectionery sold online as blessed Ayodhya temple prasad drew a ₹1 lakh fine — and an order to prove religious claims before listing them.
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