In 2010, Wachovia Center changed the name of the 21,000-seat home of the Flyers and 76ers to the Wells Fargo Center.
Exposed to risky loans, such as adjustable rate mortgages, Wachovia began to experience heavy losses in its loan portfolios during the subprime mortgage crisis. Once Washington Mutual was seized, Wachovia immediately lost a total of $5 billion in deposits. Federal regulators pressured Wachovia to put itself up for sale over the weekend leading to its sale to Wells Fargo in 2008.
In March 2021, FTX acquired the naming rights to Miami Heat’s arena in a $135 million, 19-year agreement. As part of the 2022 bankruptcy of FTX, the naming rights agreement was terminated effective January 2023 and is now named Kaseya Center.
FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, once valued at $32B in January 2022, scammed billions from crypto-currency users. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, after a surge of customer withdrawals earlier in the month. The company didn’t have sufficient assets in reserve to meet customer demand. FTX crashed due to mismanagement of funds, lack of liquidity and the large volume of withdrawals.
Nikola is among a group of EV and mobility startups that went public via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies before generating revenue, never mind being profitable. Many of these, notably Nikola, were swept up in the meme stock craze during the pandemic and saw shares — and market cap — jump into the stratosphere. All of these stocks have come crashing back down to earth, leaving EV SPACs like Nikola scrambling for cash.
In 2015, Fab.com, a design-focused e-commerce site, sold to PCH for $15M after it had raised $469M and peaked at a $1.3B valuation. Fab featured and sold third-party items from small design shops all over the world using a flash-sales model. To counteract potential competition, Fab spent $100M to expand into Europe before they built a repeatable model in the US. In addition, they moved away from their core of flash-sales leading to buying a warehouse to hold inventory, greatly expanding their SKUs, and creating their own products.
In 2023, Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy as was overwhelmed by $4 billion in debt and faced more than a thousand opiod-related lawsuits. Yet its business has been deteriorating for years as it struggled to compete against larger companies like CVS, Amazon, and Walgreens.
In 2023 and after 49 years in business, Tuesday Morning, shut down. They partnered with manufacturers to buy their excess merchandise and host limited-time warehouse sales to offer these goods at a discount to the public. The company’s main merchandise categories include upscale home furnishings, housewares, pet supplies, bath and body products and toys. Tuesday Morning’s demise resulted from not having an online presence during the pandemic, lacking a compelling assortment compared to TJ Maxx and Ross Stores, and many store locations suffered from a lack of visibility or were in strip malls lacking healthy foot traffic.
In 2021, as the platform became larger, they could not devise a way to establish stronger relationships with users or scale self-sustaining communities. Management also failed to understand the fundamental nature of a social media platform and lacked a clear path to profitability.
In 2023, the Mets had the highest payroll in MLB history at $374.7 million requiring them to pay an additional record $101 million luxury tax. They finished fourth in the NL East at 75-87 in the most expensive flop in baseball history.
In 2023, Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, shut down. After raising $450M the nascent industry stumbled, and Hyperloop One never won a contract to build a working hyperloop.
In 2014, Nokia phone failed as it failed to adapt to the competition posed by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.
