Failed merge and acquisition cases in the Internet history

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Summary

Internet history reveals numerous failed mergers and acquisitions that led to substantial financial losses for major tech companies. A prominent example is AOL's acquisition of Bebo for $650 million, which was later sold for a mere $10 million, with its co-founder eventually repurchasing it for $1 million. Similarly, News Corp's $580 million purchase of MySpace resulted in a $35 million sale after Facebook's dominance. Yahoo also faced significant setbacks with its acquisitions of Kelkoo and Delicious, underscoring the challenges of strategic integration and adapting to rapidly evolving digital landscapes.

Bebo founder sold Bebo with 850 million US dollars in 2008, but later he bought it back with just 1 million US dollars. This news lets us think about those failed merge and acquisition cases in Internet history. Let's summarize some of them here.

1. Bebo

Buyer : AOL

Acquisition price : 650 million US dollars

Sold price : 1 million US dollars

Loss: 849 million US dollars

In 2008, AOL was still belong to Time Warner. It made a decision to acquire the third largest social networking site Bebo, The purpose of this acquisition is to complete its business transformation, from Internet service provider to ad-supported media company. After six months since AOL was separated from Time Warner, AOL decided to sell Bebo, In June 2010, AOL sold it to investment firm Criterion Capital Partners with 10 million US dollars. Later Bebo co-founder Porch couple bought back the company with 1 million US dollars in an auction.

2. MySpace

Buyer: News Corp

Acquisition price : 580 million US dollars

Sold price : 35 million US dollars

Loss : 545 million US dollars

News Corp acquired the then flourishing MySpace in 2005 with 580 million US dollars, but later MySpace was surpassed by Facebook due to management issue. At last MySpace was sold to online media and advertising company Specific Media with 35 million US dollars.

3. Kelboo

Buyer : Yahoo

Acquisition price : 598 million US dollars

Sold price : 125 million US dollars

Loss : 473 million US dollars

Yahoo spent 475 million euros (about 598 million US dollars) on acquiring European comparison shopping site Kelkoo,In 2008, the site was sold to the British Jamplant.

4. Delicious

Buyer : Yahoo

Acquisition price : between 15 million and 30 million US dollars

Sold price : 5 million US dollars

Loss : Over 10 million US dollars

Yahoo acquired the social bookmarking service Delicious in 2005 and sold it to YouTube co-founder Steve Chen in 2011 with an unknown price. Yahoo announced in December 2010 that the company would clean up their product line and clear the non-core businesses.

Reference : http://tech.qq.com/a/20130702/017425.htm#p=5

MERGE AND ACQUISITION LOSS MYSPACE

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