10 Worst Business Decisions Of All Time
Business is known to be the best way to earn some money, some business decisions, like the ones made by Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, have proven to be the best decisions of all time. On the other hand, there are some worst business decisions of all time, which manage to make a fool out of everyone involved. Mentioned below are the 10 worst business decisions of all time.
10 worst business decisions
- AOL merge with Time-Warner
The AOL merger with Time-Warner provided to be poisonous to both companies. AOL was one of the biggest online portals through which internet connections were made to the outer world by Americas.
At its peak, it connected 35 million subscribers to the internet. AOL was a darling on Wall Street, until it merged with Time-Warner, its merge with Time-Warner proved to be one of the worst business decisions of all time.
The CEO of AOL, Steve Case met Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin in 1999. The two immediately began plans about merging their companies to gain a lot of profit in the years to come.
At 350 billion dollars, the largest merger in the history of the world took place between these two companies. However, with no time into the merger, the increased availability of high-speed internet cut deeply into the dial-up revenue of AOL, causing both companies and their shares to plummet down.
- Ross Perot passed on Microsoft for cheap
Ross Perot was the owner of the Electronic Data Systems back in 1979 when the company was worth 1 billion dollars.
It tried to merge with a then start-up company Microsoft, but the price quoted by Bill Gates was about 40 to 60 million dollars.
Perot passed on the offer for being too expensive, and needless to state, this decision seems to be one of the worst business decisions of all time.
- Blockbuster rejected Netflix
Netflix is now a staple in many households, providing entertainment facilities to people all around the world.
If you are from the 90’s you probably remember the local Blockbuster showing released of movies and series. Blockbuster ran 9904 stores in the world and its revenue was up to 5.9 billion dollars a year. It, however, failed to change with the adapting taste of American customers.
Netflix began offering the DVD by mail service in the late 1990s, thus decreasing the popularity of Blockbuster. Netflix was ready to join forces with Blockbuster at 50 million dollars.
It would help launch the DVD by mail service of Blockbuster. However, Blockbuster refused the deal, making it one of the worst business decisions of all time, Netflix now stands with a net worth of 20 billion dollars while Blockbuster canceled its services in 2013.
- Excite refused collaboration with Google for 750000 dollars
Google is valued at over 180 billion dollars today. On 1999, it was to deal with Excite in a deal of 750,000 dollars.
Excite was an extremely popular search engine at the time. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to sell their search engine for 1 million dollars and later reduced their price to 750,000 dollars.
However, Excite was not ready to take up the deal and now Google is the worldwide staple in terms of search engines.
- Coke introduced a new formula
Another worst business decision in history is the introduction of the new coke formula in 1985.
Thinking that the new youth was more interested in the sweet taste of Pepsi, Coke introduced a new flavor to the market. The company unveiled the New Coke, leaving consumers perplexed.
There was instantly a flurry of complaints to the company and the old Coke was sold on the black market for exaggerated prices. It causes the company to close down the New Coke and released Coca-Cola Classic to placate the taste of the masses.
- Decca Records avoids a deal with the Beatles
This probably has to be another one of the worst business decisions of all time. Nobody is unaware of the popularity and the exemplary music of the Beatles.
However, Decca Records did not seem to see the charm of the band and avoided a deal with the nervous and eager band.
The decision to take them up was avoided and they were replaced by a local act from London, named Brian Poole and the Tremoloes. Needless to state, The Beatles turned out to be the best-selling band in the history of music.
- C. Penny becomes honest
The newly hired CEO of J.C. Penney, Ron Jonhson made some honest comments about the fake prices put up by the company for the pricing tactics of the clothes sold by the company, he revealed that the clothes were tagged at a double price, and then given off with a 50% discount to attract customers.
He tried to mix things up and give a new feel to shoppers by introducing lower prices, and give the stores a stylish feel.
This decision seems to have backed out big time, mainly because of the phonology held by normal shoppers. They missed the discount coupons and sales dropped even lower. The prices had to be backed up to its fake prices in order to resume the sale services.
- ABC gives up on The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is arguably one of the most popular shows of all time. It is hard to comprehend the fact that ABC passed out on the show and opted to stick with Monday Night Football.
ABC had managed to stay in the third position, owing to its popularity from Monday Night Football, hence, it decided to pass out on The Cosby Show, and the show was taken up by NBC.
The program became an instant hit, taking NBC on the Number 1 position among other networks in its five seasons.
Related: 10 Awesome Work From Home Jobs That Can Pay at least $100,000
- NBC and CBS pass on Monday Night Football
Another one of the worst business decisions of all time has to be the NBC and CBS passing out on Monday Night Football.
Baseball was Americas’ favorite pass time in the 60’s. but football was slowly emerging as a favorite pastime too. Monday Night Football as through about by Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who approached CBS and NBC to showcase the show on their networks.
Both networks were reluctant to strike and deal and the deal went to ABC. ABC rose in popularity and became the third most watched channel. Monday Night Football because one of the longest running and highest rated television series of all time.
- MySpace bought by Rupert Murdoch
Before there were Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, MySpace was the first social network to go mainstream. This was back in 2004 when it has 1 million users just a month after launch.
Teenagers to rock stars created accounts on MySpace like crazy. It was the fifth most visited internet domain in America by 2005.
However, the worst business decision of all time came about for MySpace when Rupert Murdoch came along to buy it.
The billionaire bought the company for 580 million dollars and tried to squander a lot of money through the network in a short time by introducing numerous ads all around, this caused person to move on to the ad-free Facebook.
In 2008, the site peaked at 75.9 million dollars but revenues dropped quickly after the fame of Facebook. In 2011, MySpace was sold for a mere 35 million dollars.
