in these cases one plus one almost
equaled zero welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top 10 most disastrous mergers
in business history I did it with as
much or more excitement enthusiasm as I
did on that night when I first made love
some 42 years ago for this list we only
considered mergers where the two parties
were more or less of equal size or where
the deal was at least billed as a merger
of rough equals that means we excluded
acquisitions we’re a much larger company
acquired a smaller company number ten
excite and @home with their shared VC
firm kleiner perkins concern about
increasing competition the high-speed
cable internet services of the at home
network were combined with excites
popular search engine in the hopes of
attracting millions of subscribers the
resulting six point seven billion dollar
excited home deal was one of history’s
biggest mergers involving two internet
companies but the Nasdaq systemic
meltdown and the culture clash between
excites dot-com bubble and at homes more
corporate and conservative cable
business ultimately led to its demise
number nine New York Central and
Pennsylvania railroads this unlikely
merger of two rival railroad companies
was their attempt to remain relevant
alongside the booming auto industry
though Penn Central became one of the
United States biggest corporations the
company couldn’t survive inflation
internal conflicts bad management and
massive cost-cutting a promised 200
million dollar government loan never
materialized and in 1970 Penn Central
filed for the biggest corporate
bankruptcy to that point number 8 Kmart
and Sears it was businessman and
investor Edward Lampert who united the
struggling department store chain with
the struggling discount store chain
unfortunately both Sears and Kmart
continued to fail as Sears Holdings it’s
not that the retailer per se is weak but
if you have the greatest store and it’s
not here where the customers are that’s
a problem with the subsequent recession
and
covering problems like poor investment
and shrinking revenues to make matters
worse the higher prices of the company’s
goods increased its irrelevance against
retail giants like Walmart number seven
Alcatel and loosened to keep up with the
ever growing telecommunications industry
the networking technologies of American
multinational Lucent were joined with
French company
Alcatel however the 13 billion
dollar-plus deal did more damage than
good as revenues decreased the two
cultures found little common ground and
few lasting solutions within a few years
higher-ups at alcatel-lucent resigned
losses totaled in the millions and the
value of loosens Alcatel purchased
assets plummeted
we haven’t executed all elements in a
way that I was hoping 2012 I misjudged
I’ve said that for your camera a few
times in the beginning I was too
optimistic number 6 CBS and Viacom
described by CNN as an attempt to make
Dan Rather’s Network relevant to the MTV
generation this merger instead caused
stock prices to decline and executives
to feud calling it a disaster is
slightly unfair but considering the over
35 billion dollar deal between the
entertainment conglomerate and the
broadcaster was the largest in media at
the time and that they split just a few
years later well that’s all you need to
know number 5 sprint and Nextel this
merger of equals paired a
telecommunications company with a
wireless service provider for a mere 36
billion dollars however Sprint’s poor
customer service soon tainted next Dells
excellent rep and along with
incompatible networks this dashed hopes
for a bigger subscriber base and
improved operations as management and
customers began leaving the company’s
shares collapsed drastically and in 2008
Sprint Nextel wrote down 30 of the 36
billion dollar merger number four
Citicorp and travelers group when these
companies came together in a seventy
billion dollar deal the banking giant
and the financial conglomerate thought
they had a surefire way to increase
customers
and investors but the Citigroup merger
felt more like a takeover when
travellers group bought all Citicorp
shares and dismissed its highest-ranking
officers this lack of synergy forced
Citigroup to later turn the traveler’s
insurance division into a separate
business number three Daimler Benz and
Chrysler one of history’s biggest
industrial mergers paired German car
manufacturer Benz AG with American
automaker Chrysler Corporation for over
36 billion dollars though dubbed a
merger of equals the Daimler Chrysler
partnership found little success
mixing luxury and budget-friendly cars
and European and American cultures after
sales and stock prices dropped
significantly Chrysler was sold to an
American private equity firm number two
Seagram and Vivendi Universal once it
made its billions as a distillery the
Seagram company began acquiring
businesses like Universal Studios after
several losses CEO Edgar Bronfman jr.
agreed to merge with a French media
company to form the vendee Universal
entertainment less than two years later
the company lost thirty billion dollars
and was selling non strategic assets
while the Bronfman’s experienced one of
the biggest losses by a single family
ever number one AOL and Time Warner it’s
been called the worst merger ever and
the single biggest mistake in corporate
history the merger of the number one
Internet company with a number one media
company will bring together the best of
both worlds
after Time Warner merged its old-school
print media with aol’s new-school
digital content for 164 billion dollars
the dot-com bubble burst
ad aol’s reliance on dial-up internet in
an increasingly high-speed industry and
AOL Time Warner was reporting a $99 loss
in 2002 a rapidly declining stock price
and millions in lost jobs and
subscribers forced Time Warner to spin
AOL off into an independent company
seven years later do you agree with our
list which do you think was the most
disastrous merger ever be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com for more
entertaining top
equaled zero welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top 10 most disastrous mergers
in business history I did it with as
much or more excitement enthusiasm as I
did on that night when I first made love
some 42 years ago for this list we only
considered mergers where the two parties
were more or less of equal size or where
the deal was at least billed as a merger
of rough equals that means we excluded
acquisitions we’re a much larger company
acquired a smaller company number ten
excite and @home with their shared VC
firm kleiner perkins concern about
increasing competition the high-speed
cable internet services of the at home
network were combined with excites
popular search engine in the hopes of
attracting millions of subscribers the
resulting six point seven billion dollar
excited home deal was one of history’s
biggest mergers involving two internet
companies but the Nasdaq systemic
meltdown and the culture clash between
excites dot-com bubble and at homes more
corporate and conservative cable
business ultimately led to its demise
number nine New York Central and
Pennsylvania railroads this unlikely
merger of two rival railroad companies
was their attempt to remain relevant
alongside the booming auto industry
though Penn Central became one of the
United States biggest corporations the
company couldn’t survive inflation
internal conflicts bad management and
massive cost-cutting a promised 200
million dollar government loan never
materialized and in 1970 Penn Central
filed for the biggest corporate
bankruptcy to that point number 8 Kmart
and Sears it was businessman and
investor Edward Lampert who united the
struggling department store chain with
the struggling discount store chain
unfortunately both Sears and Kmart
continued to fail as Sears Holdings it’s
not that the retailer per se is weak but
if you have the greatest store and it’s
not here where the customers are that’s
a problem with the subsequent recession
and
covering problems like poor investment
and shrinking revenues to make matters
worse the higher prices of the company’s
goods increased its irrelevance against
retail giants like Walmart number seven
Alcatel and loosened to keep up with the
ever growing telecommunications industry
the networking technologies of American
multinational Lucent were joined with
French company
Alcatel however the 13 billion
dollar-plus deal did more damage than
good as revenues decreased the two
cultures found little common ground and
few lasting solutions within a few years
higher-ups at alcatel-lucent resigned
losses totaled in the millions and the
value of loosens Alcatel purchased
assets plummeted
we haven’t executed all elements in a
way that I was hoping 2012 I misjudged
I’ve said that for your camera a few
times in the beginning I was too
optimistic number 6 CBS and Viacom
described by CNN as an attempt to make
Dan Rather’s Network relevant to the MTV
generation this merger instead caused
stock prices to decline and executives
to feud calling it a disaster is
slightly unfair but considering the over
35 billion dollar deal between the
entertainment conglomerate and the
broadcaster was the largest in media at
the time and that they split just a few
years later well that’s all you need to
know number 5 sprint and Nextel this
merger of equals paired a
telecommunications company with a
wireless service provider for a mere 36
billion dollars however Sprint’s poor
customer service soon tainted next Dells
excellent rep and along with
incompatible networks this dashed hopes
for a bigger subscriber base and
improved operations as management and
customers began leaving the company’s
shares collapsed drastically and in 2008
Sprint Nextel wrote down 30 of the 36
billion dollar merger number four
Citicorp and travelers group when these
companies came together in a seventy
billion dollar deal the banking giant
and the financial conglomerate thought
they had a surefire way to increase
customers
and investors but the Citigroup merger
felt more like a takeover when
travellers group bought all Citicorp
shares and dismissed its highest-ranking
officers this lack of synergy forced
Citigroup to later turn the traveler’s
insurance division into a separate
business number three Daimler Benz and
Chrysler one of history’s biggest
industrial mergers paired German car
manufacturer Benz AG with American
automaker Chrysler Corporation for over
36 billion dollars though dubbed a
merger of equals the Daimler Chrysler
partnership found little success
mixing luxury and budget-friendly cars
and European and American cultures after
sales and stock prices dropped
significantly Chrysler was sold to an
American private equity firm number two
Seagram and Vivendi Universal once it
made its billions as a distillery the
Seagram company began acquiring
businesses like Universal Studios after
several losses CEO Edgar Bronfman jr.
agreed to merge with a French media
company to form the vendee Universal
entertainment less than two years later
the company lost thirty billion dollars
and was selling non strategic assets
while the Bronfman’s experienced one of
the biggest losses by a single family
ever number one AOL and Time Warner it’s
been called the worst merger ever and
the single biggest mistake in corporate
history the merger of the number one
Internet company with a number one media
company will bring together the best of
both worlds
after Time Warner merged its old-school
print media with aol’s new-school
digital content for 164 billion dollars
the dot-com bubble burst
ad aol’s reliance on dial-up internet in
an increasingly high-speed industry and
AOL Time Warner was reporting a $99 loss
in 2002 a rapidly declining stock price
and millions in lost jobs and
subscribers forced Time Warner to spin
AOL off into an independent company
seven years later do you agree with our
list which do you think was the most
disastrous merger ever be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com for more
entertaining top
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