Chapter 11 Explained: How Giants Reorganize

Chapter 11 lets a failing company keep operating while it restructures debt in court. Lehman Brothers filed the largest case in United States history on September 15, 2008, with 639 billion dollars in assets, and the collapse froze global credit markets.

General Motors showed the other path: it filed on June 1, 2009 with 82.3 billion in assets, shed brands and debt, and emerged as a leaner new company in about six weeks. Enron and WorldCom prove the process offers no rescue when fraud is the root cause..