Name: Top 10 Companies Destroyed by HORRIBLE Leadership
Uploaded: 2025-03-04T10:56:43.000Z
Duration: 14 min 35 s
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at companies that fell from grace due to leaders who failed to adapt, made misguided business mistakes, or tarnished the brand with scandals.

Carly Fiorina deciding to go after Compaq, that was a very controversial strategy.

Toys R Us A kid in a candy store is one thing.

Everyone's childhood died a little in 2017 when the retailer first filed for bankruptcy, eventually closing all U.S. locations and many international sites.

Although the brand has staged a minor comeback, it's far from the toy dynasty it once was.

After years of battling declining sales and competitors gobbling up market share.

But competition wasn't the company's biggest problem.

Aside from struggling to compete with online retailers like Amazon, a former business partner, Toys R Us entered a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005.

This came with an annual $400 million interest payment, accumulating nearly $5 billion in debt.

Although this was the straw that broke Jeffrey the giraffe's back, management made other costly ventures like a Times Square location that closed after roughly 15 years.

A disappointing end to what was once the world's biggest toy store.

Telltale Games Following games featuring characters from Back to the Future, Sam & Max, and Homestar Runner, Telltale produced a monster hit with 2012's The Walking Dead.

What seemed like the pinnacle of success was the beginning of the end.

While Telltale leapt at the opportunity to produce more IP-driven games, this led to increased crunch time.

The long hours negatively impacted employees, many of whom felt the games had grown formulaic under Kevin Bruner's allegedly toxic leadership.

Not only from a production and execution point of view, but from a design point of view, it's a different medium.

I think it's just as hard to make an episode as it is to make a big epic game or to make a series.

Even after Pete Hawley replaced Bruner, a quarter of Telltale's workforce was laid off.

By the next year, 90% was gone amid a majority studio closure.

With most of its assets going to LCG Entertainment, Telltale's reversal of fortune sums up the phrase, a flame burns brightest before going out.

These are the skills you need to succeed when the whole ecosystem is upheaving.

So I give us a good chance of coming out of the other end of the upheaval in a good place.

Bed, Bath & Beyond Bed, Bath & Beyond suffered the same fate as several other retailers that fell behind the times.

As more consumers embraced the convenience of online shopping, CEO Stephen Tamaris' business model was seen as old school.

After nearly a decade and a half, Tamaris was pressured to resign in 2019.

The company still struggled to catch up with the competition under the leadership of Mark Tritton, who started replacing popular brands with private label ones.

Cutting back on coupons also alienated loyal patrons.

Amid other financial missteps, not to mention the pandemic, Tritton exited in 2022.

Sue Gove filled the position shortly before the chain filed for bankruptcy the following year.

The Bed, Bath & Beyond name fell under the ownership of Overstock.com, which rebranded as Beyond Incorporated.

WorldCom At its peak, WorldCom rivaled only AT&T in the long-distance telecommunication business.

The leader in globally managed VPN solutions on the world's most scalable global IP network.

After merging with MCI in 1997 for a then-unprecedented $37 billion, the brand might have seemed too big to fail.

The illusion of success started to unravel in 1999.

Not only did a sprint merger fall through on Bernard Ebers' watch, but the co-founder and CEO committed fraud to preserve the company's stock price.

Over the next three years, an internal audit revealed $3.8 billion that hadn't been properly booked.

That number eventually grew to $11 billion.

Ebers was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy, earning a 25-year sentence.

Ebers died shortly after being released from prison.

Meanwhile, WorldCom filed for bankruptcy before being acquired by Verizon.

Hewlett-Packard Long before Apple or Microsoft, there were two engineers in a garage named Bill Hewlett and David Packard.

The duo laid the groundwork for a tech company that would endure for more than 80 years.

It's a great mix of humanity and AI all in one to unlock new potential.

Hewlett-Packard's downward spiral arguably began toward the turn of the century.

With the company already on shaky ground, newly named CEO Carly Fiorina sought a merger with Compaq.

Really, when you go back all the way to Carly Fiorina and the decision for HP to merge with Compaq, that was one of those mega-mergers that really didn't pan out that well.

Although Hewlett-Packard emerged as the largest personal computer company, the merger wasn't as profitable as hoped, culminating in Fiorina's forced resignation in 2005.

Over the next decade, Hewlett-Packard lacked a clear vision, which was reflected in its revolving door of CEOs.

After years of mismanagement, the company ultimately split in two, with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Incorporated founded in 2015.

Hewlett-Packard announced job cuts of up to $30,000 today.

The cuts will come from the enterprise business, which is being created as a spinoff from Hewlett-Packard in November.

After that, HP Inc. will handle the printer and PC side of the company.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will focus on business software and services. 5.

BlackBerry In the blink of an eye, what was once seen as revolutionary can become obsolete.

Entering the 21st century, BlackBerry established itself as THE smartphone.

For much of the mid-to-late 2000s, Research & Motion's BlackBerry was the most popular smartphone brand in the US, and it wasn't close.

The device stood out thanks to its slick keyboard, sucking users in with every click.

Although the keyboard was initially a selling point, it also marked BlackBerry's downfall as Apple unveiled the iPhone.

Apple cut out the physical keyboard with a touchscreen, an innovation that BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis was slow to welcome.

But the iPhone didn't kill BlackBerry immediately, it just signed its death warrant.

Even after finally jumping on the touchscreen bandwagon, BlackBerry's products were generally seen as dated compared to rivals like Apple and Android.

While those two titans continued to push forward, BlackBerry always remained a step behind before inevitably going defunct in 2022.

And the fact we supported our devices for many years after we announced the exit of us manufacturing and designing our own smartphones, and now over the last number of years have fully transitioned into the enterprise and the foundational IoT software space. 4.

Blockbuster For decades, it was hard to imagine a world without Blockbuster, or video stores for that matter.

With the rise of streaming though, Blockbuster was destined to either adapt or die.

Blockbuster attempted to evolve with online DVD rentals and a streaming service.

By this point, Netflix had firmly established itself as the king of streaming.

That said, Blockbuster sealed its fate back in 2000, when then-CEO John Antioco turned down a $50 million offer to purchase Netflix.

Having passed on an opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million, Blockbuster teamed up with Enron to create a video-on-demand service.

Under the leadership of Antioco's successor, James Keyes, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy.

Dish Network purchased the floundering company with Michael Kelly being named CEO, but the investment wouldn't pay off.

If Blockbuster was a sinking ship, then we guess the sole location in Oregon is the life preserver. 3.

The Weinstein Company The Weinstein name was once synonymous with prestige cinema.

Meryl Streep highlighted his reputation at the 2012 Golden Globe.

Brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein established themselves as major Oscar players at Miramax before founding their eponymous company in 2005.

Harvey in particular was among the most respected moguls in Hollywood.

The masses wouldn't learn why until 2017, as numerous women, some former employees, spoke out about Weinstein's years of sexual misconduct allegations.

The Weinstein Company was quick to sever ties with its co-founder, but Harvey left a storm cloud over the studio that never went away.

As Weinstein entered a legal battle, ultimately being found guilty, the company he built endured bankruptcy.

Lantern Capital acquired the company's assets, while the Weinstein name is forever shrouded in infamy. 2.

Theranos Elizabeth Holmes seemed like an entrepreneur who was bound to change the world.

Once valued at $9 billion, with over $400 million raised, her company Theranos introduced game-changing blood tests that could deliver quick, accurate results with just a drip of blood.

At least, that's what Holmes and colleagues like Sunny Balwani had everyone believing.

In reality, Theranos was a colossal lie that defrauded investors and gave countless people false hope.

But no matter how many tests they ran, the machine failed to deliver reliable results.

Inconceivably, that did not stop Elizabeth Holmes from spruiking it to the world.