Once upon a time, Hertz Global Holdings Inc. was a market leader with a 55% share of the car rental business. Last week, the $8.9 billion company went into bankruptcy, unable to cope with the wipeout of its business following the covid-19 pandemic.
The last few years have been tough for Hertz as competition from ride-sharing companies like Uber took a toll, leading to an $18 billion debt burden.
But still there was some hope it could stage a comeback by cutting costs aggressively. Just this March, the company laid-off 12000 people while embarking on an ambitious plan to sell-off thousands of its cars.
Hoping for a strong fourth-quarter performance, the company was looking forward to an encouraging performance in 2020. It wasn’t to be.