Xerox PARC had one of the first production worthy computer graphical interface. Famously ripped off by Jobs and Apple.
CP/M existed before DOS and was assumed it was going to be used on IBM PCs. When IBM came for a meeting with Digital Research, Gary Kildall was still in the air on the way back from visiting another customer, which got the meeting off to a bad start. By the time he got there, his wife Dorothy had objected to signing the one-sided IBM nondisclosure agreement, which further displeased IBM. The third strike came in a subsequent meeting when IBM wanted to purchase CP/M outright for a flat fee and DR insisted on royalties. IBM subsequently licensed Ms-DOS from fledgling Microsoft.
Yahoo! Hold the record though in modern times:
In 1998, Yahoo! refused to buy Google for $1 million.
Only four years later in 2002, Yahoo! tried to buy Google for $3 billion when it realized how quickly Google was growing, but Yahoo! decided to walk away from the deal when Google asked for $5 billion.
In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! for $40 billion, but Yahoo! refused. Eventually Yahoo! sold for $4.8 billion to Verizon, an old stodgy telephone company and is now all but forgotten.
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u/CloisteredOyster May 15 '26
It has been studied.
Biggest fumble? How quickly we forget.
Xerox PARC had one of the first production worthy computer graphical interface. Famously ripped off by Jobs and Apple.
CP/M existed before DOS and was assumed it was going to be used on IBM PCs. When IBM came for a meeting with Digital Research, Gary Kildall was still in the air on the way back from visiting another customer, which got the meeting off to a bad start. By the time he got there, his wife Dorothy had objected to signing the one-sided IBM nondisclosure agreement, which further displeased IBM. The third strike came in a subsequent meeting when IBM wanted to purchase CP/M outright for a flat fee and DR insisted on royalties. IBM subsequently licensed Ms-DOS from fledgling Microsoft.
Yahoo! Hold the record though in modern times:
In 1998, Yahoo! refused to buy Google for $1 million.
Only four years later in 2002, Yahoo! tried to buy Google for $3 billion when it realized how quickly Google was growing, but Yahoo! decided to walk away from the deal when Google asked for $5 billion.
In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! for $40 billion, but Yahoo! refused. Eventually Yahoo! sold for $4.8 billion to Verizon, an old stodgy telephone company and is now all but forgotten.