Home Business 40 Of The Most Costly Mistakes Companies Have Ever Made

40 Of The Most Costly Mistakes Companies Have Ever Made

HizkiailJuly 25, 2021

25. Do you remember the search engine Exite?

Here’s another example of a company getting out of a business that could have turned them into billionaires. Those of you who witnessed the dawn of the internet will likely remember the Excite search engine.

In 1999, Google (then, funnily called Backrub) entered the market and Excite considered buying it but decided not to because Google wanted Excite to only use its technology. Google is currently valued at around $ 167 billion, so Excite may have made the wrong decision here.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

26. New Jersey’s Education Reform Mistake

We’ve all accidentally spelled the wrong year in our essays, tests, or even government forms. In this case, mixing up the year cost more than a little embarrassment.

The person who forgot to proofread an application cost the state of New Jersey a large federal grant for educational reform. By writing the years 2010-2011 instead of 2008-2009, New Jersey lost $ 400 million. Damn!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

27. The Howie Hubler Morgan Stanley Trade Loss

This is the story of the second largest trade loss in history. 2007 was definitely not the best year to trade bonds due to the financial crisis.

Howie Hubler (a bond dealer at Morgan Stanley) bought risky loan default swaps for $ 2 billion while selling collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) for $ 16 billion. The CDOs weren’t safe, and when the market crashed, Howie Morgan Stanley cost billions of dollars.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

28. Chrysler goes bankrupt

Daimler-Benz, the maker of Mercedes-Benz, bought Chrysler for a whopping $ 37 million but sold the company nine years later for just $ 7 million. How could that happen?

Despite doing well for several years, Chrysler suffered a setback in 2006. Despite the introduction of ten new vehicles, the auto company lost $ 1.5 billion and filed for bankruptcy in 2008.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

29. Skewed holes on the oil rig

Sometimes, if we take something too far, it will end up costing us quite a bit. A good example of this is the oil rig that drilled too far into Lake Peigneur in Louisiana.

The Texaco drill hit a salt mine, creating a huge hole that swallowed the lake and created a tremendous vortex. The damage cost $ 44.8 million, but at least no one was injured.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

30. Military jet crashes

In the most expensive crash in history, a $ 1.4 billion military jet was planning a training flight from the Pacific island of Guam in 2008 and crashed during take-off.

US Air Force photo / Staff Sgt.Bennie J. Davis III / Wikimedia Commons

Fortunately, the pilots managed to get off the jet before the crash and the sensors reported airspeed, altitude and flight path errors. It was later discovered that too much moisture had penetrated the machine due to heavy rain. Crazy!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

31. The Titanic

This story is probably the most famous of the list. Who hasn’t heard of the Titanic? The large passenger liner that set sail in 1912 has been labeled “unsinkable,” which is quite ironic considering what happened to it.

The Titanic hit an iceberg on its first voyage, which sank the ship and carried 1,500 people with it. In addition, the loss of the ship cost about 7.5 million dollars (which corresponds to about 150 million euros in today’s currency).

<< Previous

NEXT >>

32. Don’t Drop The Satellite

Honestly, if you look at this photo, it runs down our spines. That was the NOAA-19 weather satellite, which was launched in 2009. But in 2003, much earlier, the satellite fell to the ground at a 13-degree tilt while it was being rotated.

And as you’d expect, the repairs were extremely expensive – the project cost $ 135 million to work on!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

33. Foam everywhere

Imagine that you work in the aerospace industry and all of a sudden the extinguishing foam in the hall is released. That seems to have happened in this photo.

While it might be argued that there may have been a fire, it seems like far too much foam to suggest someone accidentally did it. Unless it was done on purpose to simulate clouds!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

34. Don’t forget where you parked

Wow, it hurts to look at this photo. This is what happened: someone parked their car in the driveway, but then parked a second car in the secret underground car park.

When the lower car flooded, it was pulled up and smashed the upper car in the process. A destroyed car is bad enough – imagine the cost of repairing both of them!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

35. Driving too close to a school bus has consequences

We shouldn’t really have to remind anyone, but you shouldn’t drive too close to a school bus. Why? Because otherwise you will end up in the same situation as the little silver car in this photo.

This small car drove way too close to the school bus and the bus obviously didn’t know that anyone was behind it because as it reversed it crushed the small car. And the shape of the silver car only made things worse.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

36. Crane splits the house in half

That much is certain, these repairs will go through the roof! Terrible mistakes can happen at any time and unfortunately this house was torn apart when a truck fell on its side.

The truck was loaded with a crane and as you can see the crane split this house in half. Let’s just hope no one was in when it happened.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

37. Maybe Shouldn’t Park On The Beach

As it looks in this photo, this expensive car may not be salvageable.

We’re not sure which genius thought it would be a good idea to leave this Mercedes this close to the water, but lo and behold, the tide came and the car half sank in the sand. Next time you better park in the parking lot when you go swimming!

<< Previous

NEXT >>

38. There Could Be Some Problems With Your Internet

We’ll definitely get nightmares from this photo! There seems to have been a storm and the workers are cleaning up.

With the tangled and muddy wires, it is pretty clear that the internet cables are not working and cannot be made working anytime soon. What do you think how much it will cost to fix the cables?

<< Previous

NEXT >>

39. An upset server

If you’ve always wondered what a server looks like when it tips over and falls on the floor, here is your chance.

Since these towers are extremely heavy, we’re not really sure how that happened, but either way, it’s going to be a massive cleanup project and cost a ton of money. Maybe next time people should be more careful.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

40. Volcano cannon smashes a fighter plane

As seen several times in this list, one employee’s mistake can cost an entire company millions of dollars. The F-16 Flying Falcon is a fighter aircraft used by the US Air Force.

Unfortunately, a maintenance worker accidentally activated a Vulcan cannon, and the F-16 happened to be on the runway at the time. The fighter jet caught fire and you can guess the rest.

<< Previous

NEXT >>

41. Who puts their money in the microwave?

After seeing this disturbing picture, the only question left is whether the person who did this is still sane? A wad of 5,000 Canadian dollars appears to have been put in the microwave and it is no surprise that the bills came out shriveled and unusable.