20 Business Decisions That Lost Companies Billions

The famous story says Western Union rejected Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent for $100,000 after declaring the device useless. Historians have struggled to verify that exact offer and quotation, so the neat version should be treated skeptically. What is documented is that Western Union initially focused on telegraphy and later entered telephone technology through competing patents before settling litigation with Bell interests. The broader lesson survives even if the legendary memo does not: dominant communications companies can still misjudge the technology replacing them.