史上最糟的5起互联网并购案
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好心未必办成事 企业高管们在收购热门互联网公司的时候，总是显得自信而乐观。在庆祝这些收购的电话会议上，他们总会表示，预计母公司的业务会加速增长，公司会获得一系列互补性的新产品，同时也会向公司注入新的创业精神。然而过几年后再看，结果往往是几家欢乐几家愁。有的没有辜负当初的天价收购，也有很多收购最终都成了失败的联姻。 人们对许多互联网收购都给予了很高的期望，雅虎（Yahoo）斥资11亿美金收购轻博客网站Tumblr就是其中最近的一笔。但是这笔收购的风险也很高，因为从以往记录来看，雅虎收购其他公司后的磨合结果都不甚理想。问题是雅虎是否已经学到了教训。最近雅虎就收购Tumblr发表了一份罕见的具有自知之明的媒体声明，其中说道，这次它“承诺不会把事情搞砸”，一言道出了该公司曾经坎坷的收购史。 以下谨为大家总结互联网收购史上的几大成功案例和失败案例。 美国在线－时代华纳 美国在线（AOL）与时代华纳（Time Warner）1600亿美元的天价并购案在当时被赞为新旧媒体的梦幻联姻，但是随着互联网泡沫的破灭，这场梦幻联姻最终成了同床异梦。用户抛弃了美国在线逐渐过时的拨号上网业务，奔向宽带网络的怀抱。广告商也陆续抛弃了美国在线。虽然两家公司曾经承诺采取互相销售对方广告以及实现内容共享等合作举措，但事实上这些合作始终没有实现。最终随着股价下跌，双方以分手告终。（披露：《财富》杂志的东家就是时代华纳。） Broadcast.com 雅虎于1999年以57亿美元的价格收购了马克•库班创办的在线电视网站Broadcast.com。当时雅虎高管的失策之处在于他们太超前了。龟速的拨号上网网速令在线观看视频成了一种对耐心的挑战，另外节目的匮乏也令人发指（想想上世纪60年代的怪兽电影和“维多利亚的秘密”内衣秀）。很快，这项服务和负责这笔交易的高管一道静悄悄从雅虎地消失了。 |
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. |
