4 ms·

Not sugar coating, but many companies survived bigger losses without changing what they do. Here are some examples: - Microsoft lost around 8 billion on Nokia -

• DamnYuppie 10y ago
  Those are large losses by companies who had much larger cash reserves, net income, and market caps. As such they do not appear to me to be apples to apples comparisons.
• pavlov 10y ago
  Microsoft's loss was mostly not an operational loss, but an accounting adjustment known as a writedown. They paid X billion dollars for an asset (Nokia's devices unit). The asset was recorded as being worth X billion dollars on Microsoft's balance sheet (this is called "goodwill" -- the value is what they paid, not an objective assessment). When they shut down the unit, that asset obviously ceased to have any value, and all the goodwill that was on the balance sheet materialised as a loss. But in fact the money had been paid out years earlier (when the acquisition completed), so at this point the loss was only on paper. It's sort of like if you pay $400 for an Apple Watch assuming you'll be using it all the time to improve your health. Two years later, you still haven't gone to the gym and you find the watch collecting dust in a drawer, so you must admit to yourself that the device was not an investment and your $400 were lost.
  • mholmes680 10y ago
    Toshiba/Westinghouse is a writedown as well https://www.forbes.com/sites/rodadams/2017/02/14/toshiba-chairman-resigns-after-company-announces-6-3-billion-writedown/#600e0d9229fc https://www.forbes.com/sites/rodadams/2017/02/14/toshiba-cha...
  • azinman2 10y ago
    You're forgetting the watch was $400 worth of fun for a while :)