How exactly would you break up Wells Fargo into a subset of businesses that had a chance of surviving on their own?
This is especially bad for a bank. Customers would freak out and leave. I can't find a single historical example of a bank breakup that didn't result in the destruction of the entire business.
It's not that they deserve to lose their jobs. There were probably lots of honest people working at Theranos! That's not a good reason to have kept Theranos around, though.
Like, asbestos miners losing their jobs was a necessary result of shutting down the asbestos industry. It's not that it's fair, but it's not a reason to keep mining asbestos. Obviously ideally Wells Fargo could be reformed somehow, but the "corporate death penalty"[0] exists for a reason!
But it does send a message to the broader industry. Sometimes a few rouge cancer cells can kill the entire host. And this is the second time around for them.
This is especially bad for a bank. Customers would freak out and leave. I can't find a single historical example of a bank breakup that didn't result in the destruction of the entire business.