One that stands out. There was a healthcare tech company based in Utah. It was acquired or merged with a company in South Carolina. They split roles between the two... but things were still going well (The marketing manager was awful in Utah, but had good employees working in the department. She may still be one of the worst people I've met in my life).

A couple years later the company was acquired by a similar company in Georgia. They moved everything to Georgia (i.e. people were all laid off). We did the rebrand working with the Georgia group as the lay offs were taking place. The marketing manager in Georgia was also awful at her job.

Two years later, the 'new company' was all but dead. A couple more years and it is completely dead.

What is crazy is that had the Utah group not merged.... they would probably be huge. They were a leader at the time. Two lessons that I learned are 1) that there is a lot of politicking in corporate America and 2) that there is also a lot of stupid people that can somehow keep a job... and in some cases be in 'leadership roles'.

Edit: The company isn't dead, but is much smaller and changed names.