10 most stupid business decisions Bashny.Net

Who does not risk, that does not make milliardy

Tycoons business, despite its vaunted instinct, caution and foresight sometimes manage to take decisions, which after some time remembered with tears of regret and remorse. Bitterness unrealized prospects and unearned dollars will not drown out even a collector's 30-year-old champagne cost $ 15 thousand per bottle, so businesses can only dream of a time machine to go back to decades ago and turn the story so that was not painfully ashamed of the disgrace missed opportunity. Your attention - the 10 biggest mistakes in the history of the business.

1. «slept» Motorola

In the days leading up to the era of smart phones Motorola group held a leading position in the mobile market. However, when Apple and Blackberry introduced its first models of "smart" gadgets sell Motorola devices began to plummet - the company continued to focus on appearance phones are not attended to the creation of a model that can compete with smartphones.

In 2006, the year, at the peak of success, the company earned more than $ 40 billion, while net profit amounted to about $ 3, 4 billion, but over the next two years the cost of shares Motorola has dropped by more than eight times - from $ 107 per unit to $ 13.



At the time, stylish Motorola Razr model was one of the best sellers, but miss the moment when you can take the initiative and present to the public its smartphone manufacturer suffered a crushing fiasco - growing year-on-year losses eventually forced the leadership of the corporation Motorola Inc. select unit for the production of mobile phones as a separate company and sell it to the Internet giant Google, which has already announced that he was going to return the Motorola brand leadership in the market of cell phones and gadgets.

2. Rebranding Snapple



The deal to buy the concern Quaker Oats brand soft drink Snapple, is considered one of the worst in the history of business. The company Quaker Oats, which is among the oldest manufacturers of food products in the United States, acquired Snapple for $ 1, 7 billion - according to experts, this amount was almost $ 1 billion more than the true price of the brand, as at the time of the signing of the transaction Snapple has lost its value .

Experts responsible for marketing policy Quaker Oats have decided to hold a large-scale re-branding of drinks and change the scheme of distribution of products Snapple - instead of small convenience stores drink was supposed to sell in supermarkets, advertising strategy was radically revised, the new owners have changed even tare container into which the dispensed beverage. < br />


Innovations do not like Snapple distributors and one by one they began to refuse to cooperate. Quaker Oats tried to save the situation by selling branded cvoi Snapple drinks Gatorade, but their popularity has left much to be desired.

Snapple sales fell, every day brought Quaker Oats company millions in losses, forcing the food giant to hold mass reduction of employees. There were several attempts to bring Snapple to the previous level of sales, but they have failed - even went so far as to Snapple started to distribute free of charge on the streets. Less than 2, 5 years after the purchase of Quaker Otas concern Triarc sold the company for $ 300 million.

3. Western Union and technical progress



In 1877, the year the creator of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell offered to Western Union for $ 100 thousand to buy a patent for his invention, but CEO William Orton thought the deal unprofitable, since Western Union already had a patent on the use of the telegraph - one of the most promising technologies of the time. In his letter to Bella Orton he said that the commercial value of his invention and questionable phone call "electrical toy." I knew he would ...

4. The new formula of Coca-Cola

In 1985, in honor of the centennial of the world's most popular soft drink Coca-Cola Company has introduced a drink under the brand New Coke. New differed from the classic "Coke" slightly altered taste, but in general, the formula remains the same, with the production of "Cola" on the old recipe has been suspended.

Despite the similarity of Coca-Cola and New Coke, the latter did not like consumers and sales have plummeted by 20%, bringing the company decided to go back to the old recipe, once again confirming the old adage: "Do not fix it, if not broken!". < br />
5. Refusal 20th Century Fox from the right to Stars Wars



Top managers of the movie giant 20th Century Fox probably still wake up at night in a cold sweat, thinking about the production of the first films of the saga "Star Wars." In 1970, when George Lucas was worn by film studios, seeking money for the adaptation of the script he had written a science fiction film.



Was refused for failure, the director to attempt to put the plan into practice and achieved his goal. 20th Century Fox has agreed to sponsor the project, but some time after the beginning of work on the tape between the management of the studio and Lucas disagreed - investors intend to use in the movie stars of the first magnitude, and the director insisted that he pick up the actors from among the newcomers, not become familiar screens. As a result, the studio went to meet Lucas and agreed to give him all the rights to the characters of the saga and the further adaptation of "Star Wars" under the condition of reducing his salary by $ 20 thousand.

The director has not lost - since the release in theaters of the first film series «Star Wars» profit from the distribution of all parts of the saga on DVD and VHS-carriers was about $ 4 billion, another $ 12 billion Lucas received from the sale of goods with symbols of the "Star Wars».

6. Problems with sluhom

Way «The Beatles» to success was not too long, but thorny - before becoming the most important group of all time, the participants of the Liverpool quartet had to listen to a lot of derogatory comments about his music and not just face to slam the nose doors of record companies. < br />


January 1, 1962, the "quartet" auditioned for the studio label Decca Records and employee of the company, said the manager of the team that guys just awful sound, and "the times boy bands, strumming guitars are long gone," so that cooperation with they are unlikely to be fruitful. «The Beatles» once again refused, and after about a half year, the world has swept rampant Beatlemania. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and join them Ringo Starr turned into real idols for millions of fans around the world and remain their until now. Probably, some time after a memorable listening owners Decca Records bitten all the elbows.

7. Inattention Kodak to "figure" 77,220,319

Products Kodak's long been a benchmark of quality photo equipment, but recently c Kodak Cameras are becoming increasingly rare. It's all about the short-sightedness and the sluggishness of the company's management, the employee is, by the way, back in 1976 created the world's first digital camera. The Corporation did not hurry with the release of consumer models, resulting in lost the initiative and has lost a significant market share of digital cameras.

Later, manufacturers are trying to make up for lost profits, but it was too late, and in 2012, after years of agony, Kodak announced its bankruptcy.

8. «Google is not worth $ 1 million"

In Internet resource www.excite.com in 1999, the year the company had the opportunity to buy Google for a price that is in the present state of things seems ridiculous - Sergey Brin and Larry Page assumed for its search engine to gain $ 1 million, but the transaction is not interested bosses Exite. CEO George Bell suggested the developers of search technologies only $ 750 thousand, and they refused to sell their offspring. At the moment of Google Inc. estimated at nearly $ 400 billion.

9. Greed Blockbuster

The company Blockbuster, several years ago, owned the largest in the United States a network of salons rental and sale of motion pictures and video games in the early 2000s stingy to allocate funds for the purchase of young but promising company Netflix, has just launched an online service selling video - this decision It was for the giant video fatal.



Co-founder Reed Hastings Netflix Blockbuster originally proposed to place in the salons of internet advertising service in return the owner of video rentals was able to strengthen its position in the world wide web. Later the conversation turned to sell Netflix for $ 50 million, but in the manual Blockbuster considered that price is too high, and were quick to deny Hastings. After some time, the case of Reed and his companions went to the mountain, and Blockbuster in 2010, the year declared itself bankrupt.

10. Conservatism Ross Pero

In 1979, American businessman Ross Perot made a major mistake in my life, refusing to acquire 23-year-old Bill Gates, who later became the world's largest provider of software for personal computers. Cautious Pen did not buy Microsoft for a substantial sum at that time of $ 40 million, reasoning that the company is not worth the money and also has a very vague prospects. It only remains to add that now Forbes magazine estimates "company with dim prospects" of $ 343 billion.

via factroom.ru