Largest company to ever fail?

I’m wondering, what is the largest company to ever fail?

Circuit City–market cap around $20b

Washington Mutual?

Lehman Brothers, $600 billion in assets, is currently being called the largest bankruptcy in US history. I’m not sure it would be if we adjusted for size relative to the overall economy at time of failure.

Is the British East India Company still around? If not, then they must have failed at some point or another.

The Dutch East India Company, which owned parts of the world until it was broken up, hopelessly corrupt and nearly bankrupt, in 1799. In brief, broad strokes:

In short, the VOC was the UAC and Weyland-Yutani of the real world.

Not really, not like the corporations previously mentioned; according to Wikipedia it was nationalized and later dissolved.

And now it’s back: http://www.theeastindiacompany.com/

Assets under management has nothing to do with market capitalization. According to this article, their market cap peaked at about $60 billion. AIG would have been bigger, not to mention GM.

When it reorganized in 1982, Johns-Manville was the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history, although I’m sure it now pales in comparison with Lehman Brothers.

Here’s the list compiled by the WSJ:

Ranking by asset size is more appropriate than by previous equity or market cap, as any company that is filing for bankruptcy in theory has no equity…as its debts are greater than its assets.