[oevi]

A bit like Daimler-Benz between 1985-95 when they tried to get into aerospace and electronics under CEO Edzard Reuter, which failed miserably and cost the company around 25 Billion dollars. Some called it the biggest destruction of capital in Germany in peacetime

[adventured]

GM, which was perhaps the most powerful corporation on earth at the time, made the exact same mistakes. They bought Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems. They bought Hughes Aircraft (Hughes Electronics, DirecTV, etc). That was all in the mid 1980s at the end of GM's run when they had no idea what to do with their position and riches (the Japanese would solve that 'problem' for them shortly thereafter).

[kamaal]

I guess at some value of money the best way is to just create a hedge fund, and put your riches into diversified instruments. Sure it won't give you exponentially increasing riches, but at least you will likely see a percent or two worth returns above inflation. And given how big the money would be, it would workout just fine.

Also its just plain scary how much money one can lose and quickly.

[sgift]

The fusion between Daimler and Chrysler has been estimated to cost 75 billion and failed too. It was a complete disaster in the name of "shareholder value"