Magazine : 
6 Worst Corporate Mergers Of All Time
New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads:
In 1968, the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads merged and became the sixth largest corporation in America, at the time. It was named as Penn Central. On January 1, 1969 The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad was added to the union and by 1970, the company had filed for bankruptcy.
For the union an implementation plan was drawn up but not carried out. Later, the railroads found them unable to keep up with the intensifying costs of employees, government regulations, and faced major cost-cutting.
There was a lack of long-term planning, culture clashes in the company, and poor management.
Quaker and Snapple:
In 1994, despite warnings from Wall Street, Quaker Oats acquired Snapple for a purchase price of $1.7 billion. Quaker Oats successfully managed the widely popular Gatorade drink and thought it could do the same with Snapple.
The Quaker management believed that it could influence its dealings with supermarkets and large retailers; however, about half of Snapple's sales came from smaller channels.
Within 27 months, Quaker Oats sold Snapple to a holding company for a meager $300 million that was a loss of $1.6 million per day while the company owned Snapple.
CEO William Smithsburg’s reputation was forever tarnished, and numerous executives were fired.
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