Ten catastrophes: All-time worst tech industry executive decisions
Image 1 of 11


John Opel, IBM: Not buying Microsoft during the PC-DOS/MS-DOS negotiations / Gary Kildall, Digital Research, not licensing CP/M to IBM
John Opel, IBM: Not buying Microsoft during the PC-DOS/MS-DOS negotiations / Gary Kildall, Digital Research, not licensing CP/M to IBM
ntInformation Technology, software and computer companies are certainly not without their share of poor executive decisions and mismanagement. While dozens of notable examples could have made our list, these were by far the top top 10 worst in the history of the technology industry, causing many billions of dollars of lost revenue or resulted in the downfall of entire companies.
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Adam Osborne, pre-announcement of next Osborne computer
Adam Osborne, pre-announcement of next Osborne computer
ntThe year was 1982. British computer pioneer Dr. Adam Osborne, a man who has been universally credited with creating the portable computer industry announces the u201cExecutiveu201d OCC-2, the the successor to his current shipping product, the CP/M-based Osborne 1. In fact, over the next year, he also publicly discusses a second, smaller model, the u201cVixenu201d, one which would follow on after that.
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard: Entering Itanium Partnership with Intel and discontinuing processor fabrication operations for PA-RISC and Michael Capellas, Killing off the DEC Alpha
Lew Platt, Hewlett-Packard: Entering Itanium Partnership with Intel and discontinuing processor fabrication operations for PA-RISC and Michael Capellas, Killing off the DEC Alpha
ntIn the late 1980’s, HP determined that their PA-RISC systems architecture for enterprise-class servers was going to hit a performance scaling threshold and began to investigate a new systems architecture, VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word).
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard: Compaq Merger
Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard: Compaq Merger
ntWhile the Itanium partnership with Intel surely started HP down the road to hell, it was accelerated in 2001 when HP, under the guidance of CEO Carly Fiorina decided to merge with Compaq in a $25 billion dollar deal.
n
nt
nt
nt
nt
nt
nt
nt
n
n
nt


Steve Ballmer: Windows Vista Project Mismanaged
Steve Ballmer: Windows Vista Project Mismanaged
ntMention the name “Windows Vista” in most circles, you’ll probably get a mixture of reactions. Groans, snickers, and utter disgust.
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


John Sculley, Apple Computer: Throwing out Steve Jobs
John Sculley, Apple Computer: Throwing out Steve Jobs
nt
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Darl McBride, SCO: Attacking Linux
Darl McBride, SCO: Attacking Linux
nt
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Steve Case and Gerald M. Levin: AOL / Time Warner Merger
Steve Case and Gerald M. Levin: AOL / Time Warner Merger
nt
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Jerry Yang,Yahoo!: Refusal of Microsoft Acquisition Offer
Jerry Yang,Yahoo!: Refusal of Microsoft Acquisition Offer
nt
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n


Mark Hurd: Penile Priorities mixing with company business/Leo Apotheker: TouchPad development and Infanticide, Hewlett-Packard
Mark Hurd: Penile Priorities mixing with company business/Leo Apotheker: TouchPad development and Infanticide, Hewlett-Packard
nt
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
.jpg)
.jpg)
Which ranks as the worst tech decision ever?
Which ranks as the worst tech decision ever?
nWhich of these rank as the worst tech executive decision ever? Take our poll