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SALES

Why These Fortune 500 earning a spot on the Fortune 500 list
alongside them. When the US slipped
into a recession in 1958, AMC was
Companies Failed the only automaker to report a sales
increase rather than slashed revenue.

How could a company that once held a dominant However, fortune reversed for this imperiled
spot on the Fortune 500 list fade into obscurity? company, which was plagued with internal
Here’s what today’s business leaders can learn problems like poorly timed vehicle releases,
slow response to customer demand, and
from their storied falls from grace. BY ANDRE RIOS
irresponsible financial management.
Customers balked at AMC’s pitifully small
lineup of vehicles and largely preferred more
HILE FORTUNE’S FAMOUS LIST of 500 corporate cutting-edge models by the Big Three.
superpowers may seem like a knighting that all but connected people internationally. Anyone who
shields a business from failure, there are classic cases In 1987, Chrysler swooped in to purchase remembers MCI’s famous pin-drop commercial
of this simply proving untrue. These three well-known, once- an indebted, spiraling AMC. It’s rumored and seemingly permanent billboard in Times
admired companies are now propped up as examples of how that Chrysler made this decision solely to Square might wonder what exactly happened
not to operate. get its hands on the Jeep brand, which has to such a global communications success.
consequently flourished since it was taken
American Motors Corporation under Chrysler’s wing. As Bob Sorokanich of the In 1963 Microwave Communications Inc. opened
Its name alone was so broad and all-encompassing that popular automotive blog Jalopnik writes, this its doors to stand toe to toe with AT&T, one of the
American Motors Corporation (AMC) seemed synonymous was “a move that helped the larger automaker largest monopolies in US history. Competition
with the nation’s role in automotive-engineering development. survive its closest scrape with death and fueled MCI to develop impressive long-distance
Once the owner of sub-brands like Rambler, Nash, and Jeep— made Jeep into the modern juggernaut it is phone call technology, building the nation’s
the latter being the only well-known brand today—AMC took today.” The term “modern juggernaut” certainly second-largest fiber-optic network. By 1990,
strides that have influenced the automotive market long could not apply to AMC, an abbreviation MCI served a network of over 46,000 miles
after its closure. AMC was the first to implement four-wheel now associated with a TV network. and offered a whopping fifty communications
drivetrains in affordable family cars. It is also responsible for services, including voice and data.
developing the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, paving MCI
way for the modern SUV, the most popular body style in many In 2004, MCI Inc. ranked at number 168 on However influential MCI may have been,
parts of America today. Some of its vehicles, including the 1969 the Fortune Global 500 list, but this would be though, it couldn’t outlast the game of
Rambler American, are considered highly sought-after classics. one of the last times MCI stood among titans. competitive buyouts and mergers that has
At the time, it was one of the largest and most historically plagued the communications
Founded in 1954, AMC held its own against the “Big Three” diversified communications corporations in industry. Amid suffering profits, rallying
manufacturers—Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors—even the world, contending with AT&T as a giant that consumer demand for more advanced

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