From rejecting Bell's phone patent to turning down Google, here are 10 such mistakes in Tech history.
From rejecting Bell's phone patent to turning down Google, here are 10 such mistakes in Tech history. (Source: The Telegraph)
If this deal was finalised, we would not know what Google is today. In the early days, Yahoo!, was the hottest website on the internet. Yahoo! Was in repeated talks to acquire Google, but never managed to finalise the deal. Today Google is more than $500 billion while Yahoo! stands at just $35 billion.- Apple's third co-founder Ron Wayne lost out big time. The lesser known Wayne sold his complete stake of 10 percent for just $1,500 in 1976. Those shares today are almost worth $50 billion. (Photo: BBC)
- Nintendo would have been a big name in the game console market if it had not turned down Sony in its early days. Sony and Nintendo were working together on a modification for the SNES, but proceeded with Philips to work on CD-i.
- Kodak would have been the first to launch a digital camera. However, the idea was turned down by the management who laughed at the engineer who presented filmless camera' to the executives way back in 1975. Sadly, in 2012, Kodak declared bankruptcy after failing to adopt the idea and go digital.
- Unclear whether Steve Jobs left Apple or was pushed out in 1985, but this departure was the start of a run under John Sculley that brought Apple down to its knees in the 1990s.
- Many old timers would remember RealNetworks. It was the company which originally turned down the idea of a personal music player. The personal music player, the iPod, was the original idea of Tony Fadell, who later went on to Apple.
- A local DVD rental company Blockbuster turned down the offer of Netflix for $50 million in 2000. They used to run a company that would sell and rent DVDs by post. Today, Netflix has made the DVD obsolete. (Photo credit: CNN)
- Microsoft actually saved Apple in 1997 when the company was in bad shape. Bill Gates bailed out Apple with a worth $150 million, which potentially saved the company in exchange for certain promises. If it was not for Gates, we wonder what type of phones we would be using today.
- This one was known as the biggest mistake in history. $350 billion worth AOL and Time Warner split ways in 2009.
- Believe it or not, Western Union actually rejected the patent offer from Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Eventually, this led to the formation of the Bell Telephone Company, which was later acquired by AT&T. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From rejecting Bell’s phone patent to turning down Google, here are 10 such mistakes in Tech history. (Source: The Telegraph)
From rejecting Bell's phone patent to turning down Google, here are 10 such mistakes in Tech history.
Next Story