10 Business Decisions That Go Down In History As The Worst EVER
by N/A, 10 years ago |
2 min read
|
2164
These bad choices are the definition of risky business.
1. Steve Jobs bought Pixar from Lucasfilm for $5 million in 1986.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/3ba47331ada60c78206e496bf2f04ffa.jpeg)
20 years later, Disney bought it for $7.4 billion.
2. Blockbuster declined to buy Netflix for $50 million.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/cc2daa8d928cf3bc3ac416e18eeea747.jpeg)
Netflix is now worth $90 million and Blockbuster has closed all of its stores.
3. Apple's co-founder sold his shares of the company for $800 in 1976.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/b39505d9f8b9b1bd529a97ca67871694.jpeg)
In 1977, sales were at $2.7 million. Today, his shares would be worth $35 billion.
4. Coca-Cola launched a re-brand to "Coke" in 1985. They also changed their recipe.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/7f16a261dafb6a47f4060c3ffc8fe370.jpeg)
They received 400,000 complaints and their market share dropped 1.4% . They changed their branding and recipe back to the originals within 87 days.
5. Yahoo has rejected Google twice.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/2ecc9dc2bd9eef62d638601466cf36fc.jpeg)
The first time was in '97 for $1 million and the second was in '02 for $5 billion. Google is now worth 10 times more than Yahoo at $350 billion.
6. Mars refused to feature M&M's in the movie E.T. in exchange for promoting the movie on their wrappers.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/a2d0e26220b220c9a0d268fc27e4315f.jpeg)
Reese's Pieces accepted and their sales shot up 65%.
7. Kodak created the digital camera in 1975, but didn't release it because they worried about their standing in the industry.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/a44b08e4abff003104459f3dad6090e0.jpeg)
Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
8. Western Union turned down a $100,000 offer for the telephone patent.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/9bd406a88c8fd82a661f450e78eda199.jpeg)
They believed that phones were nothing more than "electronic toys" with no "commercial possibilities"
9. Fox sold Star Wars' merchandising rights to George Lucas for $20,000.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/ee666c4caac0a9ed5613f254ea127834.jpeg)
Star Wars now rakes in $30 billion and 2/3 comes from merchandise.
10. The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records for two hours in 1962.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/sifts.spartzinc.com/images/0792b6fa028fbe60fee28079fa705369.jpeg)
The label rejected the group because they thought four-piece male groups with guitars were over.
✕
Do not show me this again