1999: Barbie goes high-tech as Mattel Inc. acquires The Learning Co., a maker of educational software, for $3.5 billion. Barbie should have just stayed in front of the bathroom mirror: By year-end, Mattel has taken $342 million in "restructuring charges" resulting from the acquisition. After only 16 months, Mattel sells The Learning Co. to Gores Technology Group for no cash up front, the assumption of The Learning Co.'s debt and an undisclosed percentage of its future profits (if it ever has any). That means Mattel has lost roughly $4 billion on the acquisition, with nothing to show for it — making the deal one of the worst in modern history.

The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 1999, p. B12, and October 2, 2000, p. A3;Forbes ASAP, May 28, 2001, p. 44;Mattel Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 1999;Mattel Inc. 1999 Annual Report, pp. 37-38;Mattel press release, September 29, 2000

1986: With Wall Street going ga-ga over media and retailing stocks, Home Shopping Network goes public, selling 2 million shares at an initial offering price of $18. The stock closes at $47.75, up 165.3%, probably the highest first-day return yet on record. (A decade later, the Internet will change all that.)

Jay R. Ritter, professor of finance, University of Florida, "Big IPO Runups of 1975-2000," at http://bear.cba.ufl.edu/ritter/ritterbi.htm