Video games
Hardware is the most expensive bet in entertainment. These are the companies that lost it, and the brand names that were sold on afterward.
Post-mortems in Video games
Sega Dreamcast
1998 – 2001
Dead
Outcompeted
510 days from U.S. launch to the exit
The first console with a modem in the box had the biggest launch day the industry had seen. Sixteen months later Sega stopped making it and never built a console again.
Atari
1972 – 1984
Ghost
Strategy and management
$538M lost in 1983
It grew to about $2 billion in sales in six years under Warner, lost $538 million the year after, and was handed to a rival for no cash. The name has been sold on ever since.