Top Ten Thursdays: Top Ten Defunct Companies

Time for a little nostalgia.  Top ten defunct American companies.

This was a tought list.  Here are a few that didn't make the cut:  DeLorean, Lincoln Savings, Egghead Software, MCI Worldcom, Valu Jet, Pic N' Save.  Just to name a few.

10.  ZZZZ Best.  Have you heard this guy's story?  Barry Minkow was 19 years old when he took this stock public!  It was little more than a Ponzi scheme, with no real assets or customers.

9.  E.F. Hutton.  "When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen."  Apparently, they failed to stop talking to listen to their customers.

8.  Drexel Burnam Lambert.  They rode the wave of success built by Junk Bond King, Michael Milken, and were subsequently taken down by it's crash.  Notables that went down with them:  Lincoln Savings, Executive life.

7.  Pan Am.  Perhaps they got out of a losing industry just in time.  One time the largest international airline of the United States.

6.  Woolworth's.  Who here has never been to a Woolworth's?  A bit of historical trivia:  The 1960 North Carolina sit in spawned by the refusal of four African American students who were refused service at a segregated lunch counter happened at a Woolworth's store.  Woolworth's is now survived by Foot Locker.

5.  American Motors Corp.  The formation of this company in 1954 was the largest merger in American history at that time.  AMC has since been taken over by Chrysler.

4.  Barings Bank.  Woops, this one isn't American.  Oh well, it was big enough that I could not keep it off the list.  It was formed in 1762 by Sir Frances Baring.  They helped finance the Louisiana Purchase for goodness sake!  And all this was taken down by one idiot trader in 1995.  A guy named Nick Leeson, who lost $1.4 billion speculating on Singapore Futures!  Now this guy has a web site, where he is hawking his books and movie about this story.  Unbelievable!  I think I'll go take down G.E. so I can write a book and sell movie rights.

3.  Arthur Anderson.  Once a member of the "Big 8" accounting firms, which later became the "Big 6"  This is unlike College athletic conferences which seem to be getting bigger.  They were the accountants for MCI Worldcom and Enron (woop, don't want to spoil the finish).

2.  Standard Oil.  Little do most people know, Standard Oil didn't actually go anywhere, they just got broken up into little pieces and renamed.  They became companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.  Something like Ma Bell and the baby bells, or when you spill water on gremlins and they multiply.  They are sort of emblematic of "big business" in the turn of the century.  They were taken down by the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890.  Look out Microsoft!

And the Number One Defunct American Company of all Time is...

1.  Enron.  Dang, I already spoiled it.  What a spectacular collapse.  Once lauded by Fortune Magazine as "the most innovative company" and one of the "best comanies to work for".  The collapse of Enron, and the wool pulled over everyone's eyes, let to the passing of Sarbanes Oxley, the most significant securities legislation since the post 1929 crash laws of '33, '34 and '40.

Comments

[Amanda]

Ha! I totally remember Egghead Software - thanks for the nostalgia!

[Mike]

Not to spoil the fun, but it seems to me that if a company is taken over by another company that still exists, the original company is not "defunct."

[lamoneyguy]

Fair enough. Any names you wish to add? I suppose it depends on why a company was taken over.

[DeWayne Knight]

Some other defunct US companies include: Standard Brands, the original owner of Planters Nuts; General Foods, which has been relegated to a name brand imprint of Kraft; American Home Products, whose subsidiaries were spun off into ConAgra Foods, Wyeth and Reckitt Benckiser; TWA and Eastern, two other well-known airlines from the 1970s; Filmation Associates and DePatie-Freleng, animation companies that were top competitors to Hanna-Barbera; Barry-Enright and Chuck Barris Productions, game show producers who were on par with Goodson-Todman; Filmways-Orion, which morphed into Sony Pictures; record label Casablanca, which is now part of Universal Music Group; Reeves Entertainment Group, producers of the TV show Kate & Allie

[Garland Pollard]

Hey L.A. Money guy

Great blog. I ran into your list of top 10 defunct companies. I had a list of my own; its got companies like Oldsmobile, Marshall Field's and Bonwit Teller. I am actually serious that they ought to be back. But here's an interesting "dismal science" time waster class question--is there anything that you could sell with the Enron brand on it?

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