The 25 Worst Stocks in US History
Includes 1 significant Berkshire investment, 6 technology decacorns, 2 banks, 8 telcos, and 8 others
The one significant Berkshire Hathaway investment is #16 Kraft Heinz; Berkshire still owns 27% of the stock.
Full list of the 25 worst stocks
1. WorldCom (now part of Verizon)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$102B
Largest accounting fraud in US history. Even Enron did not involve as large an amount of direct financial fraud as WorldCom. (Enron used off-balance sheet entities).
2. Rivian Automotive
Total Shareholder Losses: -$92B
Rivian is an electric vehicle startup founded in 2009 that went public in 2021.
3. Viavi Solutions
Total Shareholder Losses: -$87B
Viavi Solutions specializes in network test, monitoring and assurance technology.
4. Lucent Technologies (now part of Nokia)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$85B
Lucent was formed in 1996 after AT&T spun off units of Bell Labs and Western Electric.
5. Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$68B
Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo during the 2008 financial crisis.
6. DuPont
Total Shareholder Losses: -$60B
DuPont invented nylon, Teflon, Kevlar and other revolutionary materials.
7. DaimlerChrysler (now part of Mercedes Benz and Stellantis)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$60B
Daimler-Benz co-founder Carl Benz invented the first practical internal combustion engine car.
8. Qwest Communications International
Total Shareholder Losses: -$59B
Qwest provided landline telephone and internet services before being acquired by CenturyLink.
9. Coupang
Total Shareholder Losses: -$55B
Coupang is a South Korean e-commerce company founded in 2010.
10. Nortel Networks (now part of Ciena, Ericsson, and Hitachi)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$54B
Nortel was a telecommunications equipment manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
11. Deutsche Bank
Total Shareholder Losses: -$47B
Deutsche Bank is a leading German investment bank and financial services company.
12. Coinbase
Total Shareholder Losses: -$45B
Coinbase is a major cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012.
13. Sprint Nextel (now part of T-Mobile)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$40B
Sprint and Nextel merged in 2005 to create Sprint Nextel before Sprint was later acquired by T-Mobile.
14. Broadwing (now part of Lumen)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$38B
Broadwing provided data, voice and internet services before being acquired by Level 3 Communications.
15. Time Warner (now part of Warner Brothers Discovery and Charter)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$37B
Time Warner is a media and entertainment conglomerate that merged with AOL in 2000.
16. Kraft Heinz
Total Shareholder Losses: -$35B
Berkshire partnered with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, led by Jorge Paulo Lemann, to acquire Heinz in 2013 for $28B. Heinz then merged with Kraft Foods in 2015 to become Kraft Heinz.
17. ArcelorMittal S.A.
Total Shareholder Losses: -$35B
Executive chair Lakshmi Mittal is the 99th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $18B.
18. Palm (now part of HP)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$34B
Palm pioneered early personal digital assistants and smartphones like the Palm Pilot and Treo.
19. Uber
Total Shareholder Losses: -$34B
One of the greatest startup investments of all time (cc World's Greatest Angel Investor
)20. Global Crossing (now part of Lumen)
Total Shareholder Losses: -$33B
Global Crossing provided telecommunications services before filing for bankruptcy in 2002.
21. DoorDash
Total Shareholder Losses: -$32B
DoorDash is a leading food delivery app founded in 2013.
22. Paramount
Total Shareholder Losses: -$30B
Paramount Pictures is one of the major American film studios and a subsidiary of ViacomCBS, which changed its name to Paramount Global in 2022.
23. Snowflake
Total Shareholder Losses: -$30B
Snowflake provides data warehousing and cloud data storage solutions.
24. Sycamore Networks
Total Shareholder Losses: -$29B
Sycamore sold intelligent bandwidth management solutions before being acquired by Marlin Equity Partners.
25. Airbnb
Total Shareholder Losses: -$27B
Airbnb pioneered online home and vacation rental services when founded in 2008.
Conclusion
I included the companies that now own the assets that once belonged to the defunct companies to highlight the fact that companies don't really "die". Instead, their assets continue to live on forever in different businesses.
Creative destruction is one of the best aspects of capitalism. Business failure and bankruptcy is part of a dynamic, thriving ecosystem and economy. Assets that dragged down one stock could end up lifting up another stock.
Source: Visual Capitalist: The 25 Worst Stocks by Shareholder Wealth Losses (1926-2022)