Top 10 Disastrous Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

[@MrGilRodriguez]

The moment you see that you worked for 4 of these companies, makes you rethink your decisions in life!

[@randybutternubz5525]

tooth paste and orange juice

[@bobthebear1246]

That was fucking funny.

[@maxiebroome9545]

f

[@bowlcut7214]

+Randy Butternubz RANDAY" do you have.... CHILDREN?

[@syxepop]

+Randy Butternubz, almost hit one.. But it's still successful. LG (Lucky Toothpaste and Goldstar Electronics) of South Korea.

[@RegumRai]

+Randy Butternubz i dont get it

[@mbdfs]

How about the Top Ten Most SUCCESFUL Mergers?! You guys rock, keep the awesome videos coming.

[@Superluigi6425]

Don't forget Time Warner and Comcast.

[@phineas626]

They never merged together

[@LonesomeBossDaily]

And in 2021, it's another disaster for Warnermedia (formally known as time Warner) and at&t

[@NKP723]

Very glad to see NYC and Pennsylvania on here.

[@NCTStudio]

#6 actually predicted the future But not in the way we expected

[@Andregrindle]

Kmart and Sears probably takes the cake for me. In corporate terms Sears is time honored and could survive based on name recognition with specific generations of Americans. I really don't know how Kmart has survived with the emergence of the big box department stores. So I wonder if Kmart will drag Sears out of business or the other way around.

[@dwdonahoo2248]

I worked Travelers when Primerica bought into Travelers. The company was bought for our name and umbrella logo. Travelers was spun off in 2002...we finally got our umbrella back several years later.

[@MetroJet2000]

The 2001 merger of TWA and American Airlines could have also been a part of this Top 10, given that AA lost 2 planes on 9/11, and started a year-over-year money losing streak that would eventually lead to their Chapter 11 filing in 2011, and 2013 acquisition by US Airways. This is especially true considering that American made almost no use of any assets they inherited from TWA (with the exception of the MD-80 aircraft, which are now in the process of being retired). The hub at STL was shut down and TWA employees were either stapled to the bottom of seniority lists or furloughed.

[@generalcoon47]

Enron and Dynegy. When Enron was failing, they had one, final chance: A merger with Dynegy but Ken Lay started doing what he always did best: being a cocky narcissist. He thought that, after the merger, he was going to take control and be king of the world but Chuck Watson, CEO of Dynegy, angrily reminded him that the company was being absorbed and he was not being promoted. Later, Watson, disgusted, called off the merger saying, "You couldn't give it to me." And that's when Enron breathed it's final breath.

[@ALS2001]

#9, lead to the creation of the USRA that created Consolidated Rail Corp, (or CONRAIL), Conrail became one of the most profitable railroads, and was split up in 1999 between NS and CSX. Footage that you used came from Emery Gulash.

[@juliana.lymond2622]

The AOL Time Warner Merger Was A Disaster. WHO THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?

[@arrowpictures2844]

And now we’re seeing the same thing with Warner Bros. Discovery

[@juliana.lymond2622]

@@arrowpictures2844 And I'm Mad At David Zaslav For Cancelling Most Shows And Films On HBO Max All Because He Wanted The Stock To Go Up Again!

[@trevonpernell0814]

​@@juliana.lymond2622$103 million in the black.

[@WatchMojo]

Great suggestion but that was an acquisition, not a merger. But a really disastrous one.

[@juancabeza5809]

BioWare and EA... wait, all the companies that joined EA...

[@yoshee2946]

god dammit EA...

[@quills3324]

Juan Cabeza US Airways and American Airlines should be on this tbh

[@juancabeza5809]

cityofguayaquil I know what you're talking about... I had bad experiences with US Airways...

[@quills3324]

I had excellent experiences on US and terrible experiences on American... We are on opposite sides. Haha

[@SomeGuyWhoPlaysGames333]

The only good merge with EA which is now isn't good is the EA-Maxis one.

[@skydaniels775]

This is awsome and i love your guys visuals.how do you always find such accurate and interesting topics??? I LOVE YOU WATCH MOJO!

[@johnnylymondthe2nd29]

What About MATTEL And The Learning Company? That One Was The Worst!

[@live2rock13]

Just a though, what about when WWF/E acquired WCW back in 2001? Looking at their viewer base and financial earnings, they both have done nothing but go down.

[@ConrailFreight]

I knew Penn Central would be on here

[@Dcc357]

Daimler-Chrysler made the shittiest quality vehicles in the US. They made lots of lemons with defective paint, rust problems, defective engine design (sludge-filled 2.7 V6 engine), and the shittiest brittle plastic interiors ever. The only products they ever made that were good were the V8 engines. All that mostly went away when Fiat came in and finally got Chrysler competitive again with WAY better interiors made of leather and leatherette, nicer designs, huge investments in the factories, keeping up the tradition with muscle cars, and keeping solid axles in the beloved Jeep Wrangler. HOWEVER, they FUCKED themselves in the butt when they began using German transmissions by ZF Friedrichshafen. They are defective transmissions that raped Chrysler's quality ratings. Chrysler also seems to struggle with electronic quality control in the first year they begin making a new model. Takes them like 2 years to fix defects.

[@artistwithouttalent]

Well you have to kind of expect that with Italian cars.

[@jamjohn4885]

United airlines and Continental airlines.

[@Virtualglue]

I worked for AOL before and after the merger with Time Warner. It was a mistake at the time, but there was nothing I could do about it. Anyway it was fun working there until then, but all jobs were lost in the end, but a handful at the end. Take Care

[@RagingMoon1987]

LOL, I just knew that Penn Central would be on this list! Boy, what a mess that was.

[@TheReviewSpace]

Microsoft buying out Rare....biggest waste of a purchase EVER in gaming history.

[@erikzelada5578]

Sony and insomniac

[@brandongovreau9218]

Would you mix ground tuna with rice with oats with baking flour with yeast with spinach with sweet potato with honey with Chopped carrots and chopped apples with eggs with milk with cream and Stir it and bake it

[@MetroJet2000]

Considering that Chrysler was doing very well in the 1990s and Daimler pretty much destroyed them, leading up to Chrysler being bailed out by the US and Canadian governments and sold off to Fiat in 2009, I would say that merger should have been number one. Had the Daimler-Chrysler merger never happened, one could guess that Chrysler would look very different today.

[@5674inCincy]

Gone probably.

[@awesom3crocodile]

Yes, my mom still uses it...I used to use it back in the day AKA when I was 6-10 years old

[@niccage6375]

Fox News + cable tv

[@Tsheed1]

Rally's & Checkers and Hardee's & Carl's Jr ...... 😆

[@titanic553]

This most certainly does not follow the requirements for the list, but I think a really big one to look into would be Duke Energy purchasing Crystal River Nuclear Station.

[@odavies94]

That's absolutely hilarious. I bet you really had your thinking cap on tight for that one.

[@northalabamarailphotograph7063]

6 years after the Penn Central merger, the U.S. government created Conrail to take over. Conrail merged with CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1999

[@MeganKoumori]

Viacom is corporate scum. Anything that causes them pain I'm down with.

[@settingsun3470]

They don't care about their customers whatsoever, just money. No decency either.

[@generalcoon47]

MeganKoumori I always take comfort in the fact that all corporations are finite. Viacom will go bankrupt eventually. Even if it takes 100 years, it'll happen eventually.

[@ItsBlackjack115]

They will be bought by CBS, and then Les Moonves will start cleaning house.

[@erikzelada5578]

@@generalcoon47 the anti copyright followers are finite. They are destroyed in some years

[@awesome10443]

K Mart and Sears because in my area almost every single location of both businesses are gone.

[@MrDeadCardGamer]

***** True. An update of the video needs to be made.

[@gordontaylor2815]

***** Both K-Mart and Sears were already on the downward spiral when they merged. What happened was pre-existing problems got pooled together instead of being fixed. It was like pouring sour milk and flat soda into the same glass - you ended up with a disgusting mix instead of a drinkable liquid.

[@trevonpernell0814]

@@gordontaylor2815 In other words, they should've never merged to begin with right?

[@cyclone927]

100% with you on this one.At the time seeing those PPVs was cool and then it when all downhill for here.

[@brandongovreau9218]

Imagine this Coca-Cola and Pringles Ben & Jerry's ice cream

[@misterx4757]

Staples and Office Max/Depot.

[@gordontaylor2815]

That one doesn't count since both sides back out of the merger proposal.

[@misterx4757]

+Gordon Taylor They're still trying to get the merger done. Just as an aquisition now.

[@jackdeath]

You forgot Hewlett Packard and Compaq in 2002. The value of the deal fell $5 billion the day after the announcement.

[@historyboy08]

Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. Cost the economy over $4 billion dollars in lost revenue.

[@BlondesarefromHeaven]

Kevin Renner i learned this in high school.

[@erebustheslackerrr]

& the worst part of the AOL Time Warner merger? The loss of WCW 😢

[@anotheran]

Nokia and Microsoft

[@jmwloup5110]

Nokia as far as phones doesn't exist

[@syxepop]

+jmwloup5110 , the Swedish Nokia STILL EXIST selling tablet computers (and later in '16 smartphones) under their own name. Microsoft only bought their former phone tech (with Microsoft's own phone OS, of course) to be sold as Lumias. And Nokia also bought one of the companies on this list: Lucent Alcatel (Nokia will sell basic cellphones under the Alcatel name), so that's an update on this list...

[@jmwloup5110]

Nokia.com no longer exists nokia network systems is all that does and was originally Siemens network systems before nokia bought it microsoft bought the original nokia and owns their mobile technology much as sbc global bought AT&T Corp just for sbc to do buisness as at&t Inc so American Telegraph & Telephone no longer exists

[@syxepop]

jmwloup5110, read further... There were news articles on which the Swedish Nokia were still to build smartphones later in '16 (using Android OS, as are the few tablet computers they make) UNDER THEIR OWN NAME, adding that buying Lucent Alcatel gives them access to the basic phone market through the Alcatel name brand, which it seems they intend to keep. So the same Nokia from Sweden (not the assets that Microsoft bought) will still be making phones, besides the other "industrial" products they never sold or kept growing by buyout. It is akin to Volvo Trucks, which is the original Swedish company that used to make cars after they sold the car making division to Ford (who later sold it to private enterprise Chinese car making company Geely, although the Chinese are giving the Swedish management quite a bit of leeway to build their own technology). It's NOT like the AT&T case you've mentioned, which correctly states that SBC (Southwestern Bell from Texas) bought Alexander Graham Bell's (the telephone's inventor founded the company) AT&T, the one founded in New Jersey and operated from NYC, to get their business name, which ends in today's AT&T from Texas, "a different animal"...

[@jannadrielcervo7753]

@@syxepop Finnish not Swedish.

[@anvo89]

great to see WatchMojo branching out to other top tens. keep up the good work.

[@northalabamarailphotograph7063]

Penn Central then later became Conrail.

[@baarujoseph6745]

personally i agree great compilation especially that of Alcatel Lucent , Daimler Chrysler and citi corp there is this mentality that the bigger you are the harder it is to fail i.e you are considered too big to fail but looking at this its a big lesson

[@hackcheatLP]

This video explains why the Kmart in my town closed.

[@Tommy_Wimmer]

Warner Bros. Discovery Activision Blizzard

[@rushfan21I2]

Nintendo hired sony to make a cd add on to the snes, but had an argument over rights so nentendo made the CD-I (which failed) and sony successfully entered the consul race rivaling nintendo

[@TheNanoman79]

Most wrestling fans will agree with number one.

[@M4ZyM0Ny]

Yeah I was thinking it wasn't a merger, anyway great video and keep up the good work.

[@gogomonstertruck]

I know that AT&T is doing well now, but it has got to have some of the worst mergers ever. I remember it kept bouncing around to different companies and now it's kinda taken over Cingular and tainted it.

[@ssesf]

The only worth while info I got out of this video was the Sears K-mart merger.

[@ChanceR20011]

to be fair, the Penn central merger practically led to economic downfall in America, because of the fact that most goods are transported by rail. When it became the biggest and went for bankruptcy 2 years later in 1970 the economy started to tank, now it isn't just the railways but it was the biggest railroad system of its time and when it went bankrupt just 2 years later this lead the a overall downfall in the railroad system and economy, and only lasted 8 years . . .

[@ivannotsogreat7501]

The sharpest aren't so sharp. I deal with people like these all the time and they will get stuck on something very elementary based...but it's left up to them to call the shots and look at what happens😨.

[@ajp9009]

#1 also ensured the demise of WCW. While poorly written contracts led to the bigs dogs running the yard the merger ultimately killed it. AOL higher ups weren't a fan and Ted was no longer allowed to blindly fund WCW anymore. Eric Bichoff was going to buy it but when AOL/Time Warner dropped it from TV Eric's group backed out

[@rayford21]

Packard Motor Car Co. and the Studebaker Corp...Packard had no idea how deeply in debt the Studebaker Corp. was in and two years later production of Packard cars ceased, soon after that the Packard name disappeared entirely. Then Studebaker moved their headquarters to Canada to save money by eliminating retirement payments.

[@michleg]

AOL & Time Warner-Because AOL's noted dial up was a disaster, it took Time Warner down big time.

[@trevonpernell0814]

No joke, the story surrounding Viacom-CBS is very interesting to me.

[@Moltar_Railfan]

Especially how they re-merged in 2019

[@trevonpernell0814]

@@Moltar_Railfan On three, yes, THREE separate occasions, these 2 were one company: 1952-1970; 2000-2005; 2019-

[@Moltar_Railfan]

@@trevonpernell0814 have you watched emplemon documentary on the 2007 Viacom-KZbin case?

[@trevonpernell0814]

@@Moltar_Railfan There's a documentary? Share me the link...

[@Tsheed1]

But now it's Paramount

[@habibbialikafe339]

This list needs to be updated just for Bayer acquiring Monsanto

[@Tsheed1]

Monsanto company is so horrible with the weed killer that's carcigenic and Bayer acquiring that making the company look bad with it's association with it.

[@sdmurphy20]

WCW was bad already when #1 on the list took place. It just went from bad to worse.

[@Armengoldragon]

Thank you watchmojo, This was really impressive.

[@sharkasm2349]

The one I am thinking of isn't disastrous, it just ended with a good store closing down, in 2009 summerfield ( British food store ) filed bankruptcy but we're bought by a posh food store called the co operative ( which was also struggling ) it ended with the co operative filing bankruptcy and the only way for them to stay operational was to shut down summerfield :(

[@caitlinlavery]

+Sharkasm23 how is the co-op fancy? is that a joke?

[@internziko]

Awesome and informative video.

[@QuintMarvel]

Squresoft and Enix. It's been all downhill since then.

[@brucenatelee]

+Stanger_in_the_Alps GAWD... DAYAMMIT!!! I just made that comment too.

[@NAREK75]

WatchMojo you're the best ! I hope soon You'll make a "Top 10 Infamous Bankruptcies" vid, huh ? )))

[@Tomthestarhartnell]

WB and UPN, took a semi decent family channel, and mixed it with a semi decent ghetto channel... it became home to the twilight fanbase where every successful drama of the 90s was ruined

[@marshacreary9771]

Very Informative

[@Cnw8701]

Don't foregt about the SPSF (Southern Pacific-Santa Fe) merger in the 1980's! That was a failed railroad merger that was never even finalized! =P Though, luckily it paved way for more successful mergers, such as the DRGW (Rio Grande) 1988-89 merger with the SP, and subsequent BNSF merger in 1995-96! =D But of course the UP-SP merger of '96 was one of the most successful mergers of all time!

[@omalor]

Murders and executions mostly.

[@frtard]

Do you like it?

[@Guchi2772]

Nice reference

[@Detroit_Dawg]

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

[@CasualLoLAddict]

Citibank ate Calfed and had downsizes. They fired my dad for being too experienced for his role after being there for almost twenty years because they could hire someone younger/newer and pay them less to do the same job. :/

[@axelmoor3177]

Worst one that could have happened but didn't (thank god): Valve and EA.

[@michaelfreeman8835]

The worst would technically be EA and ANY OTHER COMPANY. we don't need more EA bullshit.

[@axelmoor3177]

Michael Freeman Word.

[@pcodyssey41]

Axel Moor You know what's funny, pick any argument, from the holocaust to peanut butter, and you'll get people that chime in on both sides of the argument. Mention EA, not a single person comes to their defense, for good reason.

[@michaelfreeman8835]

I wonder WHY?

[@pcodyssey41]

Michael Freeman It couldn't be because they exemplify corporate greed, or make really shitty games that they refuse to support because, exclusivity agreement.

[@misanthrope541]

S'cuse me, but since 1890 when the Sherman Act was made federal law, it's been illegal to monopolize. Now a hand full of corporations own everything and all of us as well. I can't help but gloat at their losses. BTW, when are the FTC and the courts going to enforce those bans? Seems we a pay a lot of folks to not do their jobs... TBE

[@abc64pan]

That was before the concept of "corporation" was introduced and recognized by law. A corporation is technically a person, hence the corp part which comes from the word corpus or body. Since a person has a protected freedom of speech, that extends to owning or selling property. A very clever way to circumvent anti-trust laws, don't you think?

[@davedeckwa5309]

Miller/Coors ? ya think?

[@skydaniels775]

I know they fought against monopolizing like blowing down a brick house its so obvious that shit still goes on..the trickle down system would be great if it actually worked

[@zouisjr08]

Here are another mergers & acquisitions that became unpopular television productions: 1. United Artist Television + Ziv Television Program = Ziv-United Artist 2. Lori mar Production + Tele pictures Corporations = Lori mar-Tele pictures 3. Warner Bros. Pictures + Seven Arts Production= Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

[@kevindagame]

It really did. The Monday Night Wars??? I miss those days

[@xgetxsickx]

How do you like working in murders and executions?

[@VelocoraptorMaster]

We don't know how badly or well this will play out. I personally and cautiously optimistic.

[@johnpilge9249]

Atari and JDT Drives. Atari was surviving and just bought a chain of retail stores. They merged with newly formed JDT that made hard-drives. JDT requested (and got) a bridge loan from Atari. JDT was a failing venture with a lot of quality control issues. They sold very few drives. The company went into liquidation. Atari sold off the software brand and liquidated. The current Atari software survives in name only with no connection to the original company.

[@RomanBV]

RIP PENN CENTRAL AND HER FORMERS. :(

[@GoyaveGoyave]

Roman BV ^So sad.

[@RedLionStudios]

Who here is a railfanner! I live on the BNSF...

[@russellgxy2905]

Nah. The Pennsy and the NYC can live on. But yeah, DEATH TO THE PC!

[@evanwaters1074]

Yeah. The merger made them discontinue their best passenger trains.

[@evanwaters1074]

+Josh Clark I live on the UP, but I mainly railfan the CP and CN.

[@kevinbrunette3722]

HP and Compaq

[@babysinclairfan]

What about youtube and google? That merger got videos banned for copyright, annoying video ads, and accounts became harder to log in to

[@phineas626]

Eddie Lampert was only intrested in his ESL Hedgefund and selling and dismantling assists of Sears to make money for his hedgefund

[@sinlokemp]

basically it's GREED that always bring down a merge!

[@brucenatelee]

What about Square Soft and Enix?

[@TheNomFactory]

If they merge, then that would officially destroy the gaming industry, resulting in mass murders and the apocalypse.

[@ArmidaGil74]

Ugh, was working at a local call center and lived through that Sprint/Nextel merger. It was awful

[@lungelomabena]

HI, can we get an update on this list.

[@hazougaming]

Small question, for the Citicorp - Travelers Group merger, it says it was around 140 billion, yet the narrator says it was 70 billion. Is the higher figure due to conversion to what it would be worth today?

[@SmoochyTea]

KLM and Air France are an excellent example...

[@jakeg3126]

Weren’t sears and Kmart starting to have problems before the merge and that’s why it happened in 1st place? Also I think the Railroad mergers were inevitable because of cars, buses, and planes

[@jfwfreo]

Boeing-McDonnell Douglas should have been on this list, that was a huge mistake and is a big part of why Boeing has had so many problems.

[@joshc7348]

I love Sears and Kmart though

[@Oli2004]

How Citigroup and Travelers can be on the best and on the worst mergers list? XD

[@NealCamerlengo]

Again Number 1 was the final nail in the coffin which lead to the death of World Championship Wrestling.

[@gabeguzman]

Yep, now we have to watch that shit they call wwe and tna

[@mustangmike8515]

Studebeaker and Packard (both car brands lasted only 5 years after the merge), Other could be AMC (Nash and Hudson), stiill they lasted until 1987 but still must of their cars where lemons (Pacer, Gemlin, Ambasador, AMX, Javelin, Eagle Station Wagon and the forgoten Renault Aliance).

[@MSNDBZ24]

That was disastrous for Nintendo, but awesome for gamers/sony.

[@Tsheed1]

Speaking of Sears and K mart what's happening to a lot of these stores is Amazon. They're hurting alot of these retailers Including Walmart & Target. But I still like to get up and shop We're out to look at the product get a feel for it before I buy it plus at these retail stores is much easier to return if you have to. Speaking of Sprint they just merged with T-Mobile So if they're under companies like metro and boost are now going to merge. Now as far as all these networks merge and I can't even keep up no more unless I go to the apps

[@JustARTificial]

As well as Crisis Core, and a few others, but nothing as substantial as the failings of FF, the disappointment of Hitman Absolution, the mid-direction of Tomb Raider, and the abandoned Sleeping Dogs.

[@azlanan4516]

WatchMojo marathon!!

[@majicalcoach]

do a top 10 most successful mergers

[@blainebarker]

The two telecom companies that made Windstream and then them buying Iowa Telecom. They as of 2014 they had not turned a profit since the creation in 2009. Maytag and all the little companies they bought as a whole (magic chief, jennair, amana, a couple others). Then Whirlpool bought all of that mess. I do agree that the TimeWarner/AOL one is the worst. I don't feel like the Nextel/Sprint one was that bad. Both companies were doing bad anyway and just needed to get together to help each other out which they pretty much did. Some of these I didn't know about. Like the Citi and Travelers Group one.

[@BuddyFilming]

Browning Ferris Industries ( BFI ) & Allied Waste