HanesBrands owned Champion, Hanes, Playtex — it sold its crown jewel and still lost
HanesBrands owned Champion, Hanes, and Playtex. It sold its hottest brand for $1.2B to pay debt — then was acquired for pennies on the dollar.
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3,222 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDHanyu Sewing (羽入縫製), Fukushima clothing workshop, bankrupt in 2026
Hanyu sewed jackets and uniforms in Fukushima since 1970 — orders slid into losses and excess debt, and the court closed it in 2026.
Read the caseHelena Rubinstein built a global cosmetics empire — after she died, no one could run it
Helena Rubinstein founded her company in 1902 and became the world's richest businesswoman — by 2003 L'Oréal had shut down the brand in the US.
Read the caseIKEA closed its Harajuku and Shinjuku urban stores after just five years
IKEA shut its compact city-centre stores in Harajuku and Shinjuku on 8 February 2026, ending a five-year experiment in Tokyo urban retail.
Read the caseKorea's first-generation e-commerce pioneer Interpark Commerce declared bankrupt in 2025
Interpark Commerce, once Korea's No.1 e-commerce company, was declared bankrupt in December 2025 after its rehabilitation procedure was abolished.
Read the caseIsetan closed two of its three Singapore stores in six months — only Scotts remains
Japanese department store Isetan closed its Tampines Mall outlet in November 2025 and its Serangoon Central store in April 2026.
Read the caseGucci to Off-White — Italian police raided 13 luxury brands over sweatshop conditions
Italian prosecutors investigated Gucci, Prada, Versace and 10 more brands for sweatshop labour — €2.75/hour, 90-hour weeks, sleeping on factory floors.
Read the caseKitaguni no Okurimono, Hokkaido-food mail order, enters civil rehabilitation
A Saitama mail-order firm sold Hokkaido crab and sea urchin since 2006 — expansion and failed diversification left ¥1.7B debts and a 2026 rehabilitation.
Read the caseKrispy Kreme was a $50 hot stock — then came Atkins, channel stuffing, and a $6 collapse
Krispy Kreme went public at $21 in 2000, peaked at $50 in 2003. Then low-carb hit, the SEC found channel stuffing, the stock fell 80%. CEO was ousted.
Read the caseLiwe Española owned Inside stores — court rejected restructuring, filed for insolvency
Liwe Española, owner of Inside fashion chain, filed for insolvency after a court rejected its restructuring — despite €109M revenue, it lost €18.3M in H1 2025.
Read the caseLojas Americanas: the R$20B accounting fraud at Brazil's biggest department store chain
Lojas Americanas was a $6B Brazilian retail giant with 1,945 stores. In 2023 it disclosed R$20B in fraudulent accounting and filed for bankruptcy.
Read the caseMaison Standards — the French essentials label that entered judicial recovery in 2024
Maison Standards — the French essentials brand founded by Uriel Karsenti in 2013 — was placed in judicial recovery in July 2024 and later liquidated
Read the caseManoush — the French boho-chic brand that closed after 23 years
Manoush — the French boho-chic fashion label founded by Frédérique Trou-Roy in 2002 — ceased operations in 2026 as ornate style fell out of fashion
Read the caseMcLibel: McDonald's sued activists over a pamphlet — the 7-year trial became a PR disaster
McDonald's sued two activists for distributing a critical pamphlet, spent £10M+ on a 313-day trial, and won £40,000 they never collected.
Read the caseNike closed its landmark Harajuku flagship store in Tokyo after 16 years
Nike shut its 16-year-old Harajuku flagship in August 2025 as part of a global retail optimization, eliminating its most visible Tokyo presence.
Read the caseONEBOY said its blanket was the coolest ever — Taiwan's FTC fined it for lying
Taiwan's popular ONEBOY called its blanket the 'coolest in history' based on a Q-MAX score. The FTC found a competitor scored higher.
Read the caseOracle sued Google over Java APIs for $9B — spent a decade in court and got $0
Oracle bought Sun and Java in 2010 for $7.4B, sued Google for $9B over Android's Java APIs. Eleven years later, after the Supreme Court ruled, Oracle got $0.
Read the casePastel World (파스텔세상), children's fashion leader, lost its licenses and mall in 2026
Daks Kids and Hazzys Kids carried Pastel World to ₩117B in sales — when the licenses ended in 2024, revenue fell 63% and the mall closed by 2026.
Read the casePorsche secretly bought 74% of VW shares — then VW took over Porsche
Porsche secretly bought 74% of VW with options. Oct 2008: VW briefly became the world's most valuable firm. But Porsche had €10B debt — VW swallowed it instead.
Read the caseRakuten closes France's No.1 e-commerce site PriceMinister 16 years after €200M takeover
Rakuten paid €200M for France's No.1 e-commerce site in 2010; 16 years on — traffic down 42%, no buyer — the marketplace closes, 180 jobs lost.
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