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35 Corporate Calamities and Big Business Blunders That Got Their Boardrooms Boarded Up

These boardrooms will self-destruct in 3... 2... 1

35 Corporate Calamities and Big Business Blunders That Got Their Boardrooms Boarded Up

January 21, 2025

Financial failures, economic errors and a third money-related alliteration that we can’t think of right now. These are the big business gaffes that got some suits canned for sure. Bankers boxes were packed, and heads were held low on their way out the door. That’s what they get for making massive mistakes with the main man’s money.

Ugh! If only we could think of another alliteration. Oh well. Better luck next time.

35

Trump Steaks

Donald Trump's Exclusive Introduction worst TRUMP business idea STEAKS THE WORLD'S GREATEST STEAK ever (maybe). Trump Steaks were (for some reason) sold at the Sharper Image. Sharper Image CEO Jerry Levin called it a horrible business idea, saying, We literally sold almost no steaks. If we sold $50,000 worth of steaks in total, I'd be surprised. CRACKED

34

Quaker

CRACKED HAPPLE APPLE NO NATURAL UNISTRAWBERRY onapp EACH TEA wine - MON TEA adidas Snapple NATURA 2019 MANGO MADNESS napp ML i { LUS A PAR & ALL NATURAL 9 - apple EXTRA Snapple LAN'T - - LAKOR TWE ABI - 1 - Banes ME 34G QUAKER I CUSTOMER are Quaker Oats Co. agreed to sell Snapple Beverage Corp. to Triarc Cos. for $300 million, only 27 months after Quaker spent $1.7 billion to buy the maker of trendy drinks, resulting in a loss of $1.4 billion for Quaker.

33

Yahoo!

CRACKED Tumblr - Home t of Fandom Memes tumblr. Search OPEN 4.4 17+ No75 ***** - - What's New version History 101 adidas thanks to choising Tumblr a place to connect with others over shared interests Preview YAHOO! In 2013, Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion, but the platform struggled to become profitable and was eventually sold to Automattic for $3 million in 2019.

32

The Premier

Turbine 13 Tortina 12 THE 167 Hondersator PREMIER SOLA MI PREM CRACKED COM RJ Reynolds spent $325 million to develop this smokeless cigarette to counter secondhand smoke. It was vaping decades before vaping ... but smokers said it tasted horrible, and was too hot to hold.

31

Dr. Pepper

In 2007, Dr. Pepper held a promotion asking people to search for a coin in Boston's most historic graveyard. 1882 Dozens of people gathered at the Old Granary Burying Ground, where figures like John Hancock are buried, looking to dig around for the coin. Boston officials quickly denounced the promotion and had it shut down. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Brazilian Oil Tycoon Elke Batista

CRACKED TUTE MILK $33 BILLION IN 18 MONTHS Eike Batista, a Brazilian oil tycoon, went from an estimated wealth of $34 billion to less than $1 billion in just 18 months. Until Elon came along, that made him a contender for the person who has lost the most money in the history of the world. — Source

29

Grumman Aerospace Corporation

There's a forgotten experimental hovertrain rotting in Pueblo, Colorado. It was a collaboration between NASA, MIT, Princeton, and the Grumman Aerospace Corporation, but the money ran out in 1975, so they just abandoned the prototype. CRACKED.COM — Source: Pueblo Railway

28

Ticker Tape Machines

The ticker tape machines in use during the 1929 Stock Market Crash were unable to keep up with trading. They ran hours behind, struggling to report 14

27

Gambled Away $100 Million

CRACKED OVER $100 MILLION GAMBLED AWAY One businessman lost more than $100 million in 2007 at a chain of casinos in Las Vegas. It's said that he was given alcohol and drugs to keep him gambling. — Source

26

Indonesian Marketing Stunt

An Indonesian marketing expert thought it would be a good idea to throw money out of a plane. Instead of a traditional campaign for his book, Tung Des

25

Snapchat’s Marketing Department

Snapchat lost around $800 million in stock after running an ad on their platform for the mobile game Would You Rather? which mocked Rihanna's abuse. Would You Rather? Imposible Chokes WOULD YOU RATHER! Slap Rihanna Punch Chris Brown Many users deleted the app following PLAY her response. CRACKED.COM

24

George Lucas

CRACKED PANAA 5293670 STEVEN SPIELBERG'S INTERGALACTIC ROYALTIES. George Lucas thought Close Encounters of the Third Kind would make more than Star Wars so he suggested swapping 2.5% of their movie's profits for eternity. Spielberg has made more than $40 million to date on this wager. — TV Over Mind / Giant Freakin Robot

23

Ted Turner

CRACKED PRE UB THE NATI L PRESS C В $8 BILLION BECAUSE OF A MERGER Ted Turner saw a huge financial loss of around $8 billion after America Online and Time Warner merged in 2001. Не had massive holdings of the new company's stock, and its price absolutely plummeted. — Source

22

MAC

MAC celebrated National Lipstick Day by giving away a free lipstick to those who came to the stores selected during the event. Thousands of customers left angrily because those stores ran out of stock minutes after opening for business. Turns out, they only had 40 lipsticks to give away per store. GRACKED.COM — Source

21

British Airways

BRITISH BIG OOPS! LOSING TENS OF MILLIONS ON A PROMOTION In 1992, Hoover offered British customers two free flights to the U.S. if they bought something worth more than £100. Unfortunately, this promotion ended up costing the company £48 million, and three senior executives were let go. CRACKED — Fasttailwind/Shutterstock
Marketing Week

20

McDonald’s Japan

M a In 2006, McDonald's Japan ran a promotion in whicH 10,000 mp3 players would be awarded to lucky customers. The players contained a virus which sto

19

The Hunt Brothers

CRACKED OVER $5 BILLION IN 2 MONTHS In 1980, Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brothers Herbert and Lamar tried to control the global silver market. This gamble failed, and it caused the value of their investments to crash from $7 billion in January to $1.7 billion in March. — NY Times

18

Bitcoin

Hundreds of billions of dollars in Bitcoin have been lost to forgotten passwords. About 20% of all Bitcoins are locked in inaccessible digital wallets, in many cases because the owners have forgotten the password. As it turns out, people don't get better at remembering passwords when the stakes get higher. — More: 5 Foolish Flaws That Make Crypto Total Trash

17

Ross Perot

CRACKED ALMOST HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY On April 22, 1986, Ross Perot lost a huge amount of money - the most ever in one day, at that point - when the stock of his company, E.D.S., dropped from $150 to $85. It was a loss of $450 million. — NY Times / CNN

16

Warren Buffett

CRACKED GO RTUNY ORT RTU WARREN BUFFETT Warren Buffett's rise to success with Berkshire Hathaway was not without its mistakes; he regrets not tendering his shares when Seabury Stanton tried to buy them back at a lower price, and he also regrets buying Berkshire's stock at a high price and combining National Indemnity Company with Berkshire Hathaway, which cost him an estimated $100 billion. — NY Times / Investopedia

15

JPMorgan

Using Excel cost JPMorgan billions.
You’d think that a huge financial company would use something fancier than Excel. JPMorgan didn’t -- to assess ris — More: 6 Itty-Bitty Screw-Ups That Cost Millions To Fix

14

Citibank

CRACKED CITIBANK Citibank made a mistake and accidentally sent $900 million to the wrong people, and the lenders refused to return the money. The lenders were taking advantage of the situation due to a longer running saga between them and Revlon, the company that borrowed the money. — NPR / FT

13

The 13th Warrior

CRACKED THE 13TH WARRIOR MONEY LOST: $100M+ The movie was a riff on Beowulf, and was based on a novel by Michael Chrichton. Despite big-name inspiration, it's estimated to have lost up to $130 million (in 1999 dollars). — AV Club / Box Office Mojo / Bomb Report

12

Finance Bros

FINANCE IS A MAN'S GAME, DEBUNKED 10006 doleodsolnresultsinachallersaeurket 006 0 0 0000 0A 00 1 1 Men are actually overconfident with their investmen

11

Crypto

Matt Damon's crypto firm sent someone $10.5 million instead of $100, and they can't get it back. GRAGKED.COM Crypto.com didn't discover that millions of dollars had gone to an Australian woman until seven months later, at which point the money was either spent or transferred.

10

Samsung

CRACKED SAMSUNG Samsung Securities Co CEO Koo Sung-hoon resigned after the company was punished by South Korea's financial regulator for an employee's error that sparked a $105 billion ghost stock blunder. The company was handed a six month partial suspension of its operations and its chief was suspended for three months. — Reuters / The Investor

9

Flappy Bird

By making an addicting mobile game. 002745 en MAIN CRACKED CONE After 8 months in the app store, the game Flappy Bird inexplicably went viral and was getting millions of downloads. The creator, Dong ي Nguyen, was making an estimated $50,000 a day before the stress of sudden fame and wealth caused him to take the game off the market. — Wired

8

Daimler

CNN / Auto News

7

Red Lobster

A Red Lobster president lost her job after creating an endless crab promotion. Red Lobster Edna Morris tried to boost profits with a $22.99 din- ner promotion, but instead lost millions by bungling her calculations on how many times patrons would refill their plates with pric- ey crab. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

News Corp.

CRACKED NECK SOUTH its AX #News Corporation today NEWS CORP. News Corp. sold Myspace for $35 million, a huge loss compared to the $580 million they paid for it in 2005. — NPR / Fortune

5

Nicolas Cage

NICOLAS CAGE SEEMS CRACKEDcO TO THINK HE HAS INFINITE MONEY. Cage sued his former business manager in 2009 for causing his financial ruin. The manager

4

Beanie Babies

The creator of Beanie Babies was charged with tax fraud. The billionaire creator Ty Warner had to pay a $100,000 fine but no jail time (?!) for hiding millions of dollars. CRACKED.COM — Source: 17 (Forgotten) 90's Things

3

Vince McMahon

CRACKED LOSING BILLIONAIRE STATUS BECAUSE OF A BAD TV DEAL In 2014, Vince McMahon lost about $350 million in one day. This was because the WWE's stock price tanked after a bad TV deal, and it was enough to make him no longer a billionaire. — Source

2

Jim Cramer

CRACKED JIM CRAMER Jim Cramer learned a valuable lesson from his experience investing in Memorex Telex in the 1990s, which resulted in a complete loss of his investment: when investing in a low-priced stock, you can still lose everything. Не now advises investors to never ask how much can I lose? when considering a stock. — CNBC / Investopedia

1

Terrible Predictions

Nothing bad will happen to the stock market. IRVING FISHER CRACKED.GOM 3 days before the stock market crash, an American economist declared that stock — Source: Federal Reserve History

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