Top 10 Worst Internet Acquisitions Ever

James Nicholson has his own analysis about the top 10 worst Internet acquisitions. The factors that he considered to be the worst are money and contribution to the acquiring company in its long term strategy.

So, here's the result: (1 = the worst)

1. Broadcast.com - acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $5 billion.
2. AOL - merged with TimeWarner in 2000.
3. Excite - acquired by @Home in 1999 for $6.7 billion.
4. GeoCities - acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $3.56 billion.
5. Netscape - acquired by AOL in 1998 for $4.2 billion.
6. Lycos - acquired by Terra Networks in 2000 for $4.6 billion.
7. BlueMountain.com - acquired by Excite@Home in 1999 for $780 million.
8. MySimon - acquired by CNET in 1999 for $700 million.
9. Skype - acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion.
10. Hotmail - acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for about $400 million.

Based on the list, Yahoo is the most company which wasted money for $8.56 billion to acquire GeoCities and Broadcast.com, and ended up with nothing.