史上最糟的5起互聯網并購案
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好心未必辦成事 ????企業高管們在收購熱門互聯網公司的時候，總是顯得自信而樂觀。在慶祝這些收購的電話會議上，他們總會表示，預計母公司的業務會加速增長，公司會獲得一系列互補性的新產品，同時也會向公司注入新的創業精神。然而過幾年后再看，結果往往是幾家歡樂幾家愁。有的沒有辜負當初的天價收購，也有很多收購最終都成了失敗的聯姻。 ????人們對許多互聯網收購都給予了很高的期望，雅虎（Yahoo）斥資11億美金收購輕博客網站Tumblr就是其中最近的一筆。但是這筆收購的風險也很高，因為從以往記錄來看，雅虎收購其他公司后的磨合結果都不甚理想。問題是雅虎是否已經學到了教訓。最近雅虎就收購Tumblr發表了一份罕見的具有自知之明的媒體聲明，其中說道，這次它“承諾不會把事情搞砸”，一言道出了該公司曾經坎坷的收購史。 ????以下謹為大家總結互聯網收購史上的幾大成功案例和失敗案例。 美國在線－時代華納 ????美國在線（AOL）與時代華納（Time Warner）1600億美元的天價并購案在當時被贊為新舊媒體的夢幻聯姻，但是隨著互聯網泡沫的破滅，這場夢幻聯姻最終成了同床異夢。用戶拋棄了美國在線逐漸過時的撥號上網業務，奔向寬帶網絡的懷抱。廣告商也陸續拋棄了美國在線。雖然兩家公司曾經承諾采取互相銷售對方廣告以及實現內容共享等合作舉措，但事實上這些合作始終沒有實現。最終隨著股價下跌，雙方以分手告終。（披露：《財富》雜志的東家就是時代華納。） Broadcast.com ????雅虎于1999年以57億美元的價格收購了馬克?庫班創辦的在線電視網站Broadcast.com。當時雅虎高管的失策之處在于他們太超前了。龜速的撥號上網網速令在線觀看視頻成了一種對耐心的挑戰，另外節目的匱乏也令人發指（想想上世紀60年代的怪獸電影和“維多利亞的秘密”內衣秀）。很快，這項服務和負責這筆交易的高管一道靜悄悄從雅虎地消失了。 |
Best intentions ????Executives buying a hot Internet company sound so assured and optimistic. In conference calls to celebrate such deals, they invariably predict accelerated growth for the parent business, a pipeline of new complimentary products and an infusion of entrepreneurial zeal. Check in a few years later, however, and the results are usually mixed. Some Internet acquisitions live up to their blockbuster billing, but many, in fact, flop. ????Yahoo's $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr, the online blogging service, is just the latest in a long list of Internet acquisitions that comes with high hopes. It's all the more risky because of Yahoo's horrendous track record of buying companies. The question is whether Yahoo has learned its lesson. In an unusually self-aware press release about the Tumblr acquisition, Yahoo (YHOO,Fortune 500) alluded to its checkered history by saying it "promises not to screw it up." ????Here's some of the highlights and lowlights in the relatively brief history of Internet acquisitions. AOL-TimeWarner ????The $160 billion AOL-Time Warner merger, hailed as a dream marriage old and new media, quickly fizzled with the Internet bubble. Subscribers to AOL's stodgy dial-up business defected to broadband. Advertisers abandoned AOL (AOL) in droves. The promised synergies between the two divisions, like selling each other's advertising and sharing content, never really materialized. Eventually, amid a depressed stock price, the combined company split up (disclosure: Fortunemagazine is owned by Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500)). Broadcast.com ????Yahoo executives got way ahead of themselves in acquiring Broadcast.com, an online television site founded by Mark Cuban, for $5.7 billion in 1999. Slow dial-up connections made watching video a test of patience as did the laughably meager library of shows (think 1960-era monster movies and Victoria's Secret fashion shows). The service soon disappeared, as did the executives who engineered the deal. |
