5 Biggest Companies That Went Bankrupt

1. Lehman Brothers

Total assets at the time of bankruptcy (in billions of dollars): 691.1

Date of bankruptcy:  September 15, 2008

With more than twice the assets of Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers easily tops the list of the 15 biggest companies that went bankrupt. Lehman Brothers was the most high profile casualty of the 2008 financial crisis. It was the fourth biggest investment bank in the United States at the time of its demise, and had been in existence for 158 years before finally filing for bankruptcy. It also had 25,000 employees, who were suddenly terminated and videos of the employees arriving at the office to clean out their desks were quite famous, as the enormity of the situation was felt by everyone.

The reason behind the bankruptcy was simple, if multi-fold; Lehman’s involvement in the sub-prime mortgage crisis (which was the bases for the 2008 recession), downgrading of assets by credit rating agencies, loss of confidence and major loss of value of stock. Due to these reasons, the company lost out on most of its clients, who moved to different banks and hence, had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. Even now, 12 years later, it is easily one of the most famous bankruptcies in the world, and definitely the biggest. Its North American assets were later purchased by Barclays (NYSE:BCS).

See also: 6 Easiest Good Credit Cards To Get Approved For After Bankruptcy and 11 largest municipal bankruptcies in US history