1. Motorola doesn’t do smartphones
Motorola was one of the biggest mobile phone manufacturers in the world during the mid-2000s, with a market share of 22 percent thanks to their hugely popular Razr model. However, their lack of urgency in producing a smartphone — not doing so until 2010 — meant their share value fell from $72 in February 2006 to only $12 three years later, an 83 percent drop.
2. The company that could have bought Google for under $1 million
Back in 1999, search engine Excite, one of the most well-known brands on the internet, turned down the opportunity to purchase Google for only $750 thousand. Google went on to dominate the world and is now valued at around $367 billion, while Excite was bought out by fellow Ask Jeeves for $343 million in 2004.
3. Decca turns down The Beatles
The Beatles are the biggest-selling band of all time, having sold 178 million records and counting. Yet, when offered the chance to sign them before making it big, Dick Rowe of Decca Records turned them down, insisting: “Guitar bands are on their way out.”
4. Blockbuster blocks itself out
Blockbuster had over 9,000 video and DVD rental stores worldwide during the 1990s, with an annual revenue of close to $6 billion per year. At the turn of the millennium, new start-up Netflix offered $50 million to help launch its new DVD-by-mail service. Blockbuster has since died out, while Netflix has a market value of around $152 billion.
5. EDS misses out on becoming a trillion-dollar company
In 1979, American IT company Electronic Data Systems was worth around $1 billion and looking to invest in a small computer company to supply valuable software. Microsoft was one of the options, but EDS refused to meet a 23-year-old Bill Gates’ asking price of $40-60 million. Microsoft is now worth more than $1 trillion.
6. Mars misses a movie opportunity
Steven Spielberg offered Mars the opportunity to feature in E.T., one of the most iconic films of all time, back in 1982, but it declined. Hershey’s, however, jumped at the opportunity and agreed a $1 million deal to push their Reese’s Pieces product, with the subsequent exposure worth an estimated $20 million.
7. Yahoo turns down megabucks from Microsoft
With a peak of around $125 billion in 2000, internet pioneer Yahoo was already on the downturn when co-founder Jerry Yang turned down an offer of $44.6 billion from Microsoft in 2008 to the annoyance of investors.
The value of Yahoo continued to decline steadily, to the point that it is now worth ony $32 billion.
8. Digg-ing themselves into a hole
News aggregator Digg rejected an offer from Google in 2010 that was reportedly worth around $200 million.
Two years later, it was forced to accept a bid from Betaworks for only $500,000.
Note: This article was originally posted on YourCoffeeBreak.co.uk.