Have you worked at a company that went under or went into bankruptcy while you were working there? If so, you have a lot of company. Many people have companies in their career history that didn't succeed or had less than optimal results. Sometimes this makes it difficult for job seekers who have worked in such companies to come up with accomplishments and results to include on their resumes for those periods of time.
I recently had a client who was a CFO of such a company. He was concerned on how to handle that job on his resume because it seemed to depict his abilities in a poor light on the surface. We delved into the issue more in-depth and I was able to show him that the company's failure wasn't his fault, but rather that he did a super-human job of trying to keep it afloat as long as he did. In his particular case, the company was a start-up. He was not hired as part of the founding team, but was brought in after the company had burned through nearly all its first-round funding. The company's product was a mess because it had not been field-tested or any kind of market analysis done before launch. The sales force was inexperienced in this particular vertical and the CEO was only 25. It was a disaster waiting to happen from day one.
In working together we found many personal accomplishments that he could point to that demonstrated his personal efforts. He had done many things that were wise and based on good thinking. We concentrated on those and kept the content positive rather than defeatist. It worked really well for him.
Company failures happen all the time. I think the statistic is that 50% of all new businesses fail within the first year. When you have larger organizations starting up, acquisitions and mergers become a factor. Rather than seeing these as detrimental to writing a good resume, view them as opportunities to delve into facing challenges. We all face challenges and to do so well is an accomplishment within itself.