The absolute worst Internet acquisitions ever

Seeking Alpha has created a list of the worst Internet acquisitions ever. So before you check it out, which would be your worst acquisitions? Who remembers BlueMountain – I think my sister sent me 40 cards a month from that site in the late '90s. Where is it today? Still there it seems, owned by American Greetings, yet I have not heard anyone mention the site in at least 2 years. What about Altavista? Didn't make the list but certainly could have.

So here is the list, check the site for the explanations.

10. Hotmail

9. Skype

8. MySimon

7. BlueMountain

6. Lycos

5. Netscape

4. Geocities

3. Excite

2. AOL

and the worst Internet acquisition ever….

1. Broadcast.com

My thoughts

Here are a couple thoughts I had on the list. My first "customized" home page was with Lycos. Boy those were some great times back then. I am still the 8ball champ of the CKS NY office.

Geocities lost because it was never "cool". People used it because there really was no other choice, but it just never took on the cool factor. And once Yahoo bought it, that really signaled the end of it.

AOL is one for me. I have my AOL account since 1993. Yep. Same account, same username. All my friends wondered why I kept the account. And I will tell you what I tell them. It allowed me to test every web site I created in their browser. I remember a time (do you?) when AOL did not use the IE browser for its core. Anyway, I still have my AOL account and now that it is free, it's even better. My first bill in my dorm including telco charges was $584.26. Damn those pics of Cindy Crawford.

It will be interesting to look back on this list in 18mos-2 yrs and see if either Myspace or YouTube are on the list.