From: tool@panix.com
Mark Brader wrote:
> * Game 2, Round 2 - History - Bad Business Decisions
> 1. E.T. liked Reese's Pieces, and placing them in that blockbuster
> movie did wonders for Hershey's bottom line. Which candy
> did the filmmakers originally want Elliot to use to lure the
> Extra-Terrestrial, but were turned down by that candy's maker?
M&Ms
> 2. Both NBC and CBS passed on this football broadcast idea, not
> wanting to disrupt their prime-time schedules. ABC took
> the chance, and this broadcast, starting in 1970, is now the
> longest-running series on American TV. Name the broadcast.
Monday Night Football
> 3. In 1979, Bill Gates offered Microsoft to a Texas businessman
> for a reported $60,000,000. Gates said no to the counter-offer
> of $15,000,000. Name the businessman, who twice ran for US
> president.
Ross Perot
> 4. In 1876, Western Union was offered a patent for an invention
> for what seems like a measly sum of $100,000. But the company
> wasn't interested in what its president called an electrical
> toy with no commercial possibilities. What was the device?
telephone
> 5. In 1999, the top two Internet search engines were Yahoo and
> Excite. The founders of another search-engine company offered
> to sell their firm to Excite for $750,000, but Excite said no.
> Name the other company, which is worth a fair bit more now.
Google
> 6. Even a billionaire like Rupert Murdoch isn't perfect all the
> time. Murdoch's News Corp. bought a social-networking company
> in 2005 -- 2 years after its launch -- for $580,000,000,
> but sold it in 2011 for just $35,000,000. Name the company,
> which lost the social networking war with Facebook.
MySpace
> 7. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak went to the founder of the
> video game company they used to work for. They showed their
> ex-boss a computer they built, called the Apple 1. Jobs and
> Wozniak offered him a 1/3 stake in Apple Computer for $50,000,
> but were turned down. Name *either* the company or its founder
> who said no to that bargain.
Atari
> 8. Quaker Oats took a huge bath on a drink line in the mid-1990s.
> Quaker bought the company from its New-York-based founders in
> 1993 for $1,700,000,000. But a series of marketing errors
> took their toll, and Quaker sold it 4 years later for just
> $300,000,000 -- a loss of $1,400,000,000. Name the drink
> company, which was resold and is thriving again.
Seagram's
> 9. Another media company bought Time Warner in 2000 for
> $165,000,000,000. But that merger became what one executive
> called "the biggest mistake in corporate history." Name Time
> Warner's partner in that disaster.
AOL
> 10. Which former video rental giant turned down a chance to buy
> Netflix for $50,000,000 in 2000?
Blockbuster
> * Game 2, Round 3 - Literature - Last Lines of Books
> 2. "He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness
> and distance." (1818)
Frankenstein
> 3. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.
> It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever
> known." (1859)
A Tale of Two Cities
> 4. "It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long
> as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back
> into the OASIS." (2011)
Ready Player One
> 5. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly
> into the past." (1925)
The Great Gatsby
> 7. "And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea."
> (1938)
The Grapes of Wrath
> 8. "And it was still hot." (1963)
Fahrenheit 451
> 9. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to
> pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible
> to say which was which." (1945)
Animal Farm
> 10. "After all, tomorrow is another day." (1936)
Gone With the Wind
--
_______________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum tool@panix.com
"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't just made it up."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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