I never cease to wonder at "business geniuses" that pay massive amounts of money for a business that is running okay but not massively profitable. Then they change Every. Single. Thing. about the business trying to make it more profitable. When they could have just started one from scratch in that model and spent all the money on marketing it.
@AlphaCentauri: I was thinking about that again earlier today. What brought it to mind for me was remembering a company I worked for just after college, around 1994/95. It was a local video store chain, had six stores, and did alright. In '98 some real estate folks paid Johnny $1.25mn for them all. They were going to expand into South Charlotte and then down to Columbia. They fired everyone within 6mos., changed the name to a "cool"-sounding name, got rid of the "old" movies, and loaded up...
@AlphaCentauri: ...with recent blockbusters and releases, and raised the VCR rental and concessions prices. All staff had to recite stupid AF scripts on the phone and in person, and the had to wear dumb "cool" uniforms instead or wearing their own clothes and just having an orange vest on over. They went bust within just under a year. Bananas.