Signature Bank - Failure Museum

Signature Bank

In 2023, Signature Bank, the 19th largest US Bank, was shut down after depositors withdrew large amounts of money when Silicon Valley Bank failed. Signature Bank had a high concentration of cryptocurrency customers with digital asset-related client deposits at $16.52B. Signature was one of the few financial institutions that took deposits of crypto assets, a business it entered in 2018. That ended up being a fateful decision because the bottom fell out of crypto assets after the collapse of FTX.

Dreamcast - Failure Museum

Sega Dreamcast

In 2001, the Dreamcast failed after two years on the market due to competition from PlayStation and Xbox, limited third party support, and Japanese consumers preferring a smaller controller.

Sidekick - Failure Museum

Sidekick

In 2009, a confluence of errors from a server failure hurt its main and backup databases supporting Sidekick. All contacts, photos, calendars, and to-do lists that weren’t locally backup were gone.

Mark Madoff - Failure Museum

Mark Madoff

In 2008, Mark Madoff and his brother Andrew exposed the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme committed by their father Bernie. They confronted their father over his plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees months ahead of schedule. Bernie then confessed to them that his business was a long-running Ponzi scheme that was collapsing under the global financial crisis.  While no criminal charges were filed against Mark Madoff, the scandal and its aftermath proved devastating to his personal and professional life. On December 11, 2010, Mark Madoff committed suicide on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.

Jean van de Velde - Failure Museum

Jean van de Velde

In 1999, Jean van de Velde just needed a double bogey 6 or better on the 18th hole to win the British Open. He made a 7, and lost the resulting 3 way playoff.

WorldCom - Failure Museum

WorldCom

From 1999 to 2002, senior executives at WorldCom orchestrated a scheme to inflate earnings in order to maintain WorldCom’s stock price.  There were over $3.8 billion of fraudulent balance sheet entries, while they overstated their assets by $11 billion. At the time, it was the largest accounting fraud in American history. A year later, the company went bankrupt.

Global Crossing - Failure Museum

Global Crossing

In 1999, Global Crossing was valued at $47 billion, but it never had a profitable year. In 2002, with $12.5B in debt, the company filed for one of the largest bankruptcies in history. Its executives were accused of covering up an accounting scandal as they greatly overestimated demand.

10 cent beer night - Failure Museum

Ten Cent Beer Night

In 1974, the “Ten Cent Beer Night” promotion by the Cleveland Indians was meant to improve attendance by offering cups of beer for just 10 cents, a substantial discount on the regular price of 65 cents. There was a limit of six beers per purchase but with no limit on the number of purchases made during the game leading to 60,000 cups of beer sold to a crowd of 25,134. Massive alcohol consumption led to fans lighting firecrackers, streaking across the playing field, and rushing the field to cause a riot. The game was forfeited in the Texas Rangers’ favor due to the mob’s uncontrollable behavior.

Powder kegs: 50 years ago, 10-cent beers helped turn a Cleveland baseball game into a bloody riot

Littoral - Failure Museum

Littoral Combat Ship

In 2023, the Navy decommissioned the Littoral combat ship since they broke down across the globe and many of their weapons never worked. They were supposed to last 25 years, but most did not last 8 years.  They were supposed to cost $200 million each to build but wound up costing over $500 million each. 

General Magic

General Magic

After being spun out of Apple in 1990 and inventing mobile computing, General Magic became the first concept IPO in Silicon Valley history in 1995. This is when a startup doesn’t have revenue or a working product, so they rely on concept alone. Two years later the company went bankrupt as consumers considered the devices unnecessary, there were responsiveness issues, the price was too high, and the batteries died quickly.