Energy, Retail, Finance Led Decade’s Biggest Bankruptcies

Cratering oil prices and a growing appetite for shopping online fueled the biggest bankruptcies of the 2010s.

Recovery from the 2008 financial crisis didn’t abate the pace of massive corporate reorganization and liquidation during the decade. Technological disruptions, changing consumer behavior, and fossil fuel price volatility contributed to the churn in bankruptcy dockets.

Retail

The “retail apocalypse” accelerated over the last decade, as competitive pressures from Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce operators drove sellers of all types and sizes to bankruptcy, often more than once.

Few Chapter 11 cases highlighted large retailers’ struggles more starkly than Sears Holdings Corp., which ...