Spotify hired too fast during the pandemic — then cut 17% of staff in one day
The Swedish streamer tripled its podcast bet and expanded headcount quickly. In 2023 it made three rounds of cuts, with the last removing 1,500 roles.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDPepsi's Josta — first US energy drink, killed before the market exploded
Pepsi launched Josta in 1995 — the first energy drink from a major US beverage company. Four years later it was pulled. Red Bull took the market.
Read the caseSurgisphere's phantom registry — two top journals retracted within days
A US data firm's unverifiable 96,000-patient registry crashed two top-journal papers and halted a WHO trial.
Read the caseOsborne Computer pre-announced its next product — and killed its own sales
Adam Osborne showed off the upcoming Executive model, dealers cancelled Osborne 1 orders, and the company was bankrupt three months later.
Read the casePronovias' €550M LBO left no room for a pandemic — insolvency in 2026
Spanish bridal giant Pronovias filed voluntary insolvency in May 2026 after €354M loss in 2024 — sold to Cap Capital
Read the caseBSP sanctioned BDO and UnionBank after a December 2021 hack drained client accounts
A compromised web service let hackers tap about 700 BDO accounts in December 2021; the central bank sanctioned BDO and UnionBank over the breach.
Read the caseOspraie Management's flagship fund lost 38.6% — biggest commodity fund collapse of 2008
Ospraie Management, a $9B commodity hedge fund, closed its flagship fund in 2008 after a 38.6% loss from falling commodity prices.
Read the caseMicrosoft paid $6.3B for aQuantive — five years later it wrote off $6.2B
The 2007 deal was Microsoft's largest ever, a defensive bid at more than double the price Google had just paid. In 2012 the goodwill went: $6.2B in one quarter.
Read the caseSharaan: AlUla's mountain-carved resort was promised for 2023 and still isn't open
Jean Nouvel's resort carved into AlUla's sandstone was announced in 2019 with 2023 completion; the builder was signed only that June, and it still isn't open.
Read the caseQ-Cells was worth €8bn in 2007 — five years later Hanwha paid €38.7m cash for it
Founded in 1999, by 2008 the world's largest solar-cell maker, worth almost €8bn. The share fell to nine cents; in August 2012 Hanwha took it over.
Read the caseXiaomi sent $725M out of India as 'royalties' without approval. It was seized.
India's ED seized ₹5,551 crore (about $725M) from Xiaomi India over royalties sent abroad without approval. The action survived review and the courts.
Read the caseEnel Energia kept calling people who never said yes — Italy's biggest privacy fine, €79M
Hundreds of complaints, 9,300 contracts activated without authorization. Italy's privacy regulator fined Enel Energia €26.5M, then a record €79M.
Read the caseBrown & Williamson knew cigarettes were addictive — and made them more so anyway
B&W enhanced cigarettes with ammonia to boost nicotine absorption. Whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand exposed the truth. The industry paid $368B. B&W ceased to exist.
Read the caseCoca-Cola launched Tab Clear to kill Crystal Pepsi — and killed both
Coca-Cola launched Tab Clear in 1992 as a 'kamikaze' to destroy Crystal Pepsi. Within a year, both were dead.
Read the caseP&G spent 28 years developing Olestra — Wow! Chips caused 'anal leakage' and collapsed
P&G invented Olestra in 1968, spent 28 years on FDA approval. Frito-Lay launched Wow! Chips in 1998, selling $400M in year one. Then came the side effects.
Read the caseNike cut Topsports out of its online sales — ¥6.5 billion in revenue vanished overnight
Nike's largest Chinese distributor lost its online distribution rights, wiping 22% of revenue and sending the stock down 20%
Read the caseArabtec's $40bn Egypt million-homes deal died before a final contract was signed
The Gulf's biggest contractor promised a million Egyptian homes to relaunch itself as a developer — then could not sign, fund or plan a single phase.
Read the caseSun Microsystems defined the internet — then Linux made its hardware obsolete
Sun Microsystems was the dot-com era's defining tech company at $200B — but when servers moved to Linux, a once-untouchable giant sold to Oracle for $7.4B
Read the caseFranklin National Bank collapsed on forex — the $39M loss that killed a bank
Franklin National Bank, the 20th largest US bank, collapsed in 1974 from $39M in unauthorized forex trading — the largest US bank failure at the time.
Read the caseMickelson's Saudi comments emptied his sponsor list in four days
After Phil Mickelson praised LIV's Saudi backers as 'scary' but worth dealing with, KPMG (14 yrs) and Workday (5 yrs) dropped him in four days; Callaway paused.
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