6. Nortel and Bay

Before RIM, Northern Telecom Ltd was the leader in technology in Canada. In the late 90’s the company bought Bay Networks for $9.1 billion. Renamed as Nortel Networks it hoped to earn a bomb by selling fibre optic network communication equipment.  The company’s stocks went up on Wall Street and a lot was expected of it. Unfortunately this was not sufficient to make a profit. The company suffered losses quarter after quarter.

After many efforts to restructure the company, it finally declared bankruptcy in 2009. Its various businesses were eventually liquidated.

We hope Facebook is listening.