Corporate Alternate History

kernals12

Banned
History is littered with fateful decisions that changed the face of the corporate world forever. For instance, in December 1959, BMW, on the verge of bankruptcy, came very close to being bought out by Mercedes Benz, before Herbert Quandt offered a fresh cash injection and convinced the board to reject the merger. Can anybody think of other instances like this?
 
There were various Snapple bubbles (Sun buying/merging with Apple) in the 1990s.

IBM considered buying Atari instead of building the PC in 1980.

MCA almost bought SeaWorld in 1976.

Disney CEO Eisner claims he thought about buying ABC before Capital Cities did in 1985.
 

kernals12

Banned
My personal favorite: In 1948, Henry Ford II was offered Volkswagen's factory in Wolfsburg by the Allied Occupation government for free, Ernest Beech, the chairman of the board, said "Mr Ford, I don't think what we're being offered here is worth a dime!", and they walked away. Incidentally, the factory was slated for demolition under the Potsdam agreement, so the fact that the Beetle ever saw the light of day is a small miracle.
 
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