FX.co ★ Four of the most failed mergers in the technological sector

Compaq – DEC

The company Digital Equipment Corp., which had been producing servers since 1960, was unable to enter the new PC market on time. In 1998, Compaq bought it for $9.6 billion. Unfortunately, the irrelevance of products and the high operating costs of DEC have become a burden for the new corporation.

Symantec – Veritas

In 2005, the Antivirus giant Symantec planned to purchase Veritas, which specialized in data storage, for $13.5 billion. But investors did not approve such a price and reduced it to $10.5 billion, only then the deal took place.

After 10 years of unsuccessful joint activity, in the summer of 2015, Symantec sold Veritas for $8 billion during the funded buyout.

HP – Compaq

In 2002, under the leadership of former US presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, HP acquired the Compaq PC manufacturer for almost $19 billion. At that time, both companies were not enjoying the best of times, as PC sales were extremely low. As a result of an unsuccessful merger, HP was forced to sack about 30,000 employees.

AOL – Time Warner

Trying to become a media giant, Internet service provider AOL bought Time Warner for $181.6 billion in January 2000. Unfortunately, this deal has become one of the largest in the world among the failed.