2020 has been a brutal year for businesses, so much so that the volume of bankruptcies this year has surpassed that of 2008. From the travel and hotel space to the energy sector, businesses across industries suffered for months as the COVID-19-induced lockdown put brakes on economic activities across the world. However, retailers selling non-essential goods have been the worst-affected with many of these names emerging among the biggest bankruptcies of 2020. As per S&P Global Market Intelligence, 610 firms have filed for bankruptcies as of December 13, the highest since 2012. Retailers like J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J.Crew, car rental giant Hertz, mall operator CBL & Associates Properties are some of the names that have been listed in Fortune’s list of ‘14 of the biggest bankruptcies of 2020'. The 14 bankruptcies happen to be from the US as the valuations of liabilities remain higher than those of others. Here’s a look at these companies and their liabilities, as mentioned by Fortune:

Black Friday is still critical,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. No retailer wants it to be tarnished. It’s still vital to get their consumers spending and get consumers into the holiday mood.”

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is doubling down on the media business with a strong push to both broadcasting as well as digital media by inducting marquee investors and launching big-ticket investments. For this purpose, RIL has roped in Uday Shankar, former Star & Disney India chairman, and James Murdoch, as strategic partners. To decode what this would mean for Viacom18, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Amnish Aggarwal, Head-Research, Prabhudas Lilladher.

China's market regulator and other government departments have launched an exercise focused on e-commerce, with plans to crack down on areas such as unfair competition and the illegal trading of counterfeits or wildlife, state news agency Xinhua said.