HACKER Q&A
📣 hnu0847

Favorite books about failed/declining companies?


Inspired by the recent thread about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos [1] I thought I'd make a thread asking for everyone's favorite books about failed/declining companies. Here is my list:

Bad Blood (Theranos)

Barbarians at the Gate (RJR Nabisco)

The Smartest Guys in the Room (Enron)

When Genius Failed (Long Term Capital Management)

Empire of Pain (Purdue Pharma)

Lights Out (GE)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29789137

  👤 enonevets Accepted Answer ✓
This was a good read - Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry

https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Signal-Extraordinary-Spectacul...

👤 mtmail
Boo Hoo: A dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com) "In June 2008, CNET hailed Boo.com as one of the greatest dot-com busts in history"
👤 version_five
If you liked all those books, I'd also recommend Den of Thieves, about the junk bond trading in the 80s.

I've read an interesting book about Bear Stearns but unfortunately I dont remember the name, it was > 10 years ago.

If you haven't read The Big Short, or seen the movie, it is a pretty popular one

👤 _448
Startup[0]: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan

Story of how and why Go Corporation failed. This startup was one of the early tablet computer maker.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Jerry-Kapla...

👤 pinewurst
Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories

The Brain Makers: The History of Artificial Intelligence – Genius, Ego, And Greed In The Quest For Machines That Think (having seen this history in real life and can testify to veracity)

👤 Bostonian
The 2008 financial crisis brought down Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, and other companies, and there were several books about it, as well as company-specific books. Maybe someone can supply specific titles.