The company then spent another $1 billion in a failed attempt to build a unified IT backbone to tie together the acquisitions. Late last year the company killed

The company then spent another $1 billion in a failed attempt to build a unified IT backbone to tie together the acquisitions. Late last year the company killed the project, known as New Forwarding Environment, deciding to stick with its legacy systems. In an object lesson on the risks entailed in roll-up strategies dependent on massive IT integrations, Deutsche Post now appears ready to cut its losses and sell the division at a huge discount. Consider that DHL Global Forwarding generated more than $16.5 billion in revenue in 2014. At a purchase price of $4 billion, that’s a sales multiple of just 0.24X. Expeditors, its strongest rival in the U.S. market, currently trades at 1.3X revenue. If DHL Global Forwarding could be priced at Expeditors’ revenue multiple, its price would exceed $21 billion. Worth noting that Expeditors (my former employer) has the complete opposite strategy compared to DHL, in both business (organic growth with no major acquisitions) and IT (homegrown systems with no major COTS purchases). Basically, in the build vs. buy debate, Expeditors has been on the side of "build" while DHL has been on the side of "buy." This is far from the only difference between the two companies, but I think it's been a major factor in their fates.