Business failures, costly decisions and the lessons they leave behind.
The full archive, in the appChilean perfumery chain Monix (est. 1938) peaked at 13 stores, but family feuds, the 2019 crisis and the pandemic drove it into voluntary liquidation in 2023.
Read the caseUniversal adult training accounts launched on a rushed Capita contract with no fraud controls, until providers looted unused accounts and the scheme was shut.
Read the caseMotherRock bet natural gas would fall; a heat wave and Amaranth's trading sent prices up. The $230M loss closed the fund in two months.
Read the caseSkol's 2015 Carnival billboards read 'I forgot my no at home' — read as excusing sexual assault, the campaign was killed in days and landed Ambev before CONAR.
Read the caseTullow Oil's CEO and exploration chief resigned after production missed targets; shares fell 70% in a day, the dividend was scrapped, net debt near $2.8B
Read the caseThe Singapore crypto lender put customer deposits into TerraUSD, lost roughly $190 million when it collapsed, and told users it had no direct exposure.
Read the caseTwo unnamed UAE branches of foreign banks paid Dh10.6m and Dh7.5m for AML and counter-terrorism financing failures found by supervisors, not by themselves.
Read the caseByju's-owned coding platform WhiteHat Jr withdrew five ads after India's ad regulator found they made unsubstantiated claims about child prodigies.
Read the caseChina's oldest cosmetics company cycled through five CEOs in eleven years after its PE-backed owner ousted the founder.
Read the caseAiways paid a record RMB 1.75B for a production license while selling about 3,000 cars a year; in 2023 unpaid rent got its HQ powered off and wages stopped
Read the caseDuPont's Roy Plunkett tried to make a refrigerant in 1938. The gas stopped. Inside was a waxy solid — Teflon. It changed cookware, aerospace, and medicine.
Read the caseA Musinsa seller relabelled cheap Chinese shoes as premium Horween-leather goods; buyers noticed, forcing an expulsion policy.
Read the caseA German watchmaker created the technology for the world's first electric watch, but 30% had to be returned and Hamilton took the patent.
Read the caseSatellite internet startup OneWeb filed Chapter 11 on March 27, 2020, laid off about 85% of staff and pursued a sale after SoftBank declined more funding.
Read the caseGeorge Soros's Quantum Fund lost $800 million in the 1987 crash — he sold stocks before Black Monday, then bought back in just before the market fell further.
Read the caseA statue meant to sell a gender-diversity fund became a PR liability: the sculptor fought it, the permit was temporary, and the sponsor settled pay claims.
Read the caseKorea's $16.6bn Barakah plant in the UAE finished four years late; the extra ~$1bn pitted builder KHNP against its own parent KEPCO in London arbitration.
Read the caseChina's first pig-farming stock defaulted on a ¥500M note in the swine-fever year, then asked bondholders to take payment in hams, gift boxes and red wine.
Read the caseToyota's Tohoku unit left 440 supplier molds and 777 finished parts in subcontractors' warehouses for free — JFTC's first carmaker recommendation.
Read the caseE.l.f. hired a comedian who joked about domestic violence. Influencers trashed its products on video; the brand apologised.
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