George Bell (CEO of Excite) rejected the offer to buy Google — twice
A mistake can become extremely costly due to a number of circumstances, including: Although loss of life undoubtedly plays a part, mistakes can result in such significant opportunities lost that they qualify as tremendous. George Bell, the CEO of Excite, was faced with the choice of whether or not to purchase Google for a bargain and twice said no. Bell passed up the opportunity to purchase Google for $1 million in 1996, a decision that has since gained notoriety in internet history. He continued to say no even after receiving another offer of $750,000. For comparison, as of January of this year, Alphabet's (Google's parent company) net worth was within 1% of $1 trillion.
Naturally, the relative values of the two enterprises were very, very different at the time. Although Excite technically no longer exists, it was once valued at around $150 million. In hindsight, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a great idea with their search engine concept, but Bell is adamant that nobody could have predicted how well it would succeed. There are various theories as to why, but the end result is always the same: Excite and George Bell missed out on a contract that would have brought in hundreds of billions of dollars.
- Year: 1996 for $1 million and another offer of $750,000
