[gdsimoes]

> Companies that manufacture things people don't want go out of business.

Do they, though? When was the last a time a really big company went bankrupt?

[toomuchtodo]

2008. Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_in_the_United_State...

[dchftcs]

They manufactured things people wanted, but shouldn't have wanted...

[bobthepanda]

GM and Chrysler also went bankrupt the year after.

Silicon Valley Bank was actually the third largest bankruptcy in US history, which is news to me. And apparently Signature Bank was fourth.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096794/largest-bankrupt...

[toomuchtodo]

MF Global in 2011 as well, but not terribly big comparatively speaking.

[jpollock]

Northern Telecom - 2013

Alcatel-Lucent - 2016 (Bell Labs/AT&T Technologies/Western Electric)

[vel0city]

Alcatel-Lucent didn't go bankrupt and out of business. They were acquired by Nokia and have had chunks spun off and sold to other companies.

Nortel is a good example though. That was a big one.

[qeternity]

The point is not that lots of companies run around making things people don't want and go bankrupt.

The point is that's what would happen, and because of that, companies focus on making things people actually do want.

Look at what happened the Facebook stock over the last few years as they rebranded to Meta and started spending wildly. The market whipped them into shape, and rewarded them handsomely.

[eru]

Though Facebook/Meta is actually a bit of a weak example, because it is very much controlled by its founder, who can outvote any public shareholder.

So any compliance with the 'wishes of market' was somewhat voluntary.

[WalterBright]

GM, Brooks Brothers, Washington Mutual, JC Penney, Hertz, Blockbuster, Sears, WeWork, Kodak, ...

[massysett]

General Motors, 2009

[kristofferR]

I'm pretty sure he meant chapter 7 (business death), that's the colloquial use of "went out of business".

[massysett]

Very well, Sears Roebuck is an even better example then even if it did not file for bankruptcy because it went from cornerstone of US culture to practically "went out of business."

[slater]

Enron, 2007

[agent281]

Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic went bankrupt last year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_States_banking_c...

[kortilla]

Silicon Valley Bank

Revlon

Avaya

Talen

Hertz