5 of 10
BACKNEXT
Nortel
Nortel
Loss: $283 billion
Peak market cap: $283 billion (July 2000)
Recent market cap: $0 (bankruptcy January 2009)

The Ontario-based telecommunications equipment maker was once one of the hottest stocks anywhere. But unlike its former rival Cisco, Nortel shriveled during the bust, amid a swirl of accounting improprieties and bad business decisions. The company pulled the plug in January 2009, filing for bankruptcy and selling off its remaining businesses.

NEXT: Lucent Technologies
Last updated February 05 2010: 2:57 PM ET
Email | Print | Share  |  RSS
Subscribe to Galleries
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
More
Dumbest moments in business 2009
Dumbest moments in business 2009
Loudmouth CEOs, islands in the desert and bringing dead celebrities back to life. Our annual list of the business world's bonehead plays marches on. More
Dumbest of the decade
Dumbest of the decade
As the first 10 years of the century draw to a close, we take a long hard look at exactly what got us into this mess. More
Dumbest 2009: Midyear edition
Dumbest 2009: Midyear edition
From Tropicana's botched redesign to KFC's chicken run, here are 17 dumb moments in business. More
Contact Us Closed Captioning Manage Cookies+ Site Map

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.