Top 10 Worst Financial Decisions by Companies

Lehman's aggressive accumulation of mortgage-backed securities led to the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at $639 billion and triggered the 2008 global financial crisis.

In 2002, Yahoo could have acquired Google for $1 billion but walked away from the deal. Google's parent Alphabet is now worth over $2 trillion.

Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 but buried the technology to protect film sales, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2012 as the market it pioneered passed it by.

Once controlling 50% of the global mobile phone market, Nokia dismissed the iPhone as a niche product and partnered with Microsoft's failing mobile OS instead of adopting Android.

SoftBank's $47 billion valuation of WeWork collapsed to under $10 billion before its IPO was pulled, exposing reckless spending, bizarre governance, and a fundamentally broken business model.

The mobile streaming service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg burned through $1.75 billion in just six months before shutting down, proving that big names and big money cannot guarantee product-market fit.

Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000 and later filed for bankruptcy in 2010, while Netflix grew into a $200 billion streaming giant.

HP paid $11.1 billion for British software firm Autonomy in 2011, then took an $8.8 billion write-down just a year later, alleging massive accounting fraud by Autonomy's leadership.

GE Capital's reckless expansion into subprime mortgages and long-term care insurance destroyed the industrial conglomerate's AAA credit rating and erased over $400 billion in market value.

Lehman's aggressive accumulation of mortgage-backed securities led to the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at $639 billion and triggered the 2008 global financial crisis.

In 2002, Yahoo could have acquired Google for $1 billion but walked away from the deal. Google's parent Alphabet is now worth over $2 trillion.

Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 but buried the technology to protect film sales, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2012 as the market it pioneered passed it by.

Once controlling 50% of the global mobile phone market, Nokia dismissed the iPhone as a niche product and partnered with Microsoft's failing mobile OS instead of adopting Android.

SoftBank's $47 billion valuation of WeWork collapsed to under $10 billion before its IPO was pulled, exposing reckless spending, bizarre governance, and a fundamentally broken business model.

The mobile streaming service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg burned through $1.75 billion in just six months before shutting down, proving that big names and big money cannot guarantee product-market fit.

Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000 and later filed for bankruptcy in 2010, while Netflix grew into a $200 billion streaming giant.

HP paid $11.1 billion for British software firm Autonomy in 2011, then took an $8.8 billion write-down just a year later, alleging massive accounting fraud by Autonomy's leadership.

GE Capital's reckless expansion into subprime mortgages and long-term care insurance destroyed the industrial conglomerate's AAA credit rating and erased over $400 billion in market value.