Worst business decisions ever.

[castletonsnob]

Semi-sequel to "Worst advertising campaigns ever". What are the worst business decisions you've ever seen?

Blockbuster passing on Netflix has to be up there.

[Spider2024]

Atari deciding not to help Nintendo.

[karl100589]

In 1991 Jewelry magnate Gerald Ratner made a speech addressing a conference of the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall, during which he described his own products as crap.

As a result the company lost 500 million pounds off its share price and over 300 stores were closed. The company were forced to change it's name two years later due to the stigma and has never recovered since.

[bibboid]

Badly managed Sears merging with badly managed K-Mart in a move destined to kill them both.

[chrom]

Sega releasing The Saturn before it or a majority of the games were even finished

[Main Event Mark]

New Coke?

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

In the space of 12 months Disney sank a combined $725 million into John Carter and The Lone Ranger and made just $270 million back.

Granted, if any company can afford to take a $450 million loss, it's Disney, but it was still an astoundingly bad bit of business.

[castletonsnob]

Nickelodeon passing on Adventure Time, which would become a huge hit for Cartoon Network, and one of the best and most influential cartoons of the 2010s. Adventure Time basically revived Cartoon Network after the CN Real era.

Nickelodeon also passed on Ed Edd n Eddy, which also became a hit on Cartoon Network.

And just in case you thought Nickelodeon's decision making on which shows to pick up couldn't get any worse, they passed on Phineas and Ferb, which became one of Disney Channel's biggest hits.

[JoDaNa1281]

All of The Big Show's bad investments.

[Feyrhausen]

Aug 1, 2022 13:05:35 GMT -5 Main Event Mark said:

New Coke?

Yep. It was not some genius plan to make people crave original Coke again. It was a series of bad decisions that ended up being salvageable.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Aug 1, 2022 13:05:35 GMT -5 Main Event Mark said:

New Coke?

No, that one I understand entirely. They had already changed the formula in other nations and continued to do well but held off doing so in the US until they lost a hold of their share of the market to Pepsi (this was a time that RC still had a national impact, albeit massively reduced from their heyday). Switching to the formula they were using elsewhere could have helped, but there was a backlash. Coke Classic was a desperation move that worked so well that people formed conspiracy theories around it.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Aug 1, 2022 13:14:11 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

In the space of 12 months Disney sank a combined $725 million into John Carter and The Lone Ranger and made just $270 million back.

Granted, if any company can afford to take a $450 million loss, it's Disney, but it was still an astoundingly bad bit of business.

Granted, in the end that loss isn't even as bad as you might think since the box office revenue never takes into account merchandising deals, licensing agreements, and home sales. Add to that the fact that any good accountant can make a loss a profitable venture itself (and Disney has GREAT accountants at their beck and call).

[Dr. T is an alien]

Aug 1, 2022 13:33:00 GMT -5 castletonsnob said:

Nickelodeon passing on Adventure Time, which would become a huge hit for Cartoon Network, and one of the best and most influential cartoons of the 2010s.

Nickelodeon also passed on Ed Edd n Eddy, which also became a hit on Cartoon Network.

And just in case you thought Nickelodeon's decision making regarding which shows to pick up couldn't get any worse, they passed on Phineas and Ferb, which became one of Disney Channel's biggest hits.

I can see them passing on the first two as those don't necessarily fit in with the shows they had at the time. Passing on Phineas and Ferb, however, is just dumb.

[castletonsnob]

Aug 1, 2022 14:07:49 GMT -5 Dr. T is an alien said:

Aug 1, 2022 13:33:00 GMT -5 castletonsnob said:

Nickelodeon passing on Adventure Time, which would become a huge hit for Cartoon Network, and one of the best and most influential cartoons of the 2010s.

Nickelodeon also passed on Ed Edd n Eddy, which also became a hit on Cartoon Network.

And just in case you thought Nickelodeon's decision making regarding which shows to pick up couldn't get any worse, they passed on Phineas and Ferb, which became one of Disney Channel's biggest hits.

I can see them passing on the first two as those don't necessarily fit in with the shows they had at the time. Passing on Phineas and Ferb, however, is just dumb.

Nickelodeon passed on those shows, and instead picked up Fanboy and Chum-Chum, Breadwinners, and Planet Sheen. They also passed on The Proud Family and The Ghost And Molly McGee.

With such bad decision-making skills, it's no wonder Nickelodeon is doing so badly.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

It's still happening, but Elon Musk offering to buy Twitter and then trying to back out of the deal may turn out to be a huge screw-up.

Kodak refusing to go to digital cameras ended up shutting the company down.

And then there's the whole 80's USFL debacle... the football league was positioned to be a decent money-maker as a spring- and summer-based league, but when the new owner of the New Jersey Generals convinced the rest of the owners to change the schedule to a fall-based league to compete directly with the NFL and then sue the NFL and the networks for running a monopoly (it was a ploy to force a merger of the two leagues), the league was sunk.

(If I recall correctly, the USFL won on one point of the lawsuit on principle, that the NFL did have a monopoly on football on TV during that time of year. The rest of the lawsuit was in favor if the NFL, mainly because the USFL was trying to use the courts to bully the NFL into buying them out.)


Edit: The amount that the USFL won in the lawsuit? Exactly $1, which was tripled because of new anti-trust laws to $3. The league lost $163 Million and shut down right after the decision came down.

[James Fabiano]

When Cyril Sneer bought a warehouse of elevator shoes from Mr. Knox.

[fw91]

Aug 1, 2022 13:33:00 GMT -5 castletonsnob said:

Nickelodeon passing on Adventure Time, which would become a huge hit for Cartoon Network, and one of the best and most influential cartoons of the 2010s.

Nickelodeon also passed on Ed Edd n Eddy, which also became a hit on Cartoon Network.

And just in case you thought Nickelodeon's decision making regarding which shows to pick up couldn't get any worse, they passed on Phineas and Ferb, which became one of Disney Channel's biggest hits.

Idk. One on hand those shows were huge hits for Disney. But my counter if it makes any sense is that for one reason or another, these shows would have looked out of place on Nick. They didn't *look* like nicktoons. It sounds silly and can't be proven, but I feel like those shows would have flopped on Nick.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Some executive looked at Zack Snyder's work and said "Yes, that's the person we want in charge of the DC movies."

[castletonsnob]

Nickelodeon making a live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, with M. Night Shyamalan directing.

[Cyno]

Aug 1, 2022 14:46:15 GMT -5 Magnus the Magnificent said:

Some executive looked at Zack Snyder's work and said "Yes, that's the person we want in charge of the DC movies."

Their line of thought was "Chris Nolan's trilogy was really successful. Let's do all our DC movies like that!" That was the Ur bad decision that led to every other one regarding the DCEU.