There were massive layoffs and retirement savings plans were destroyed.

And it had failed before. Lessons from history’s worst CEOs. Indeed, it was likely with the resources at their disposal that if they had continued taking that strategic line, they would have crushed Netflix.
Based on 24/7 Wall St.’s independent review of employee ratings provided by Glassdoor, these nine CEOs have the worst reputations.
Sears Holdings’ CEO, Edward Lampert, received positive reviews from just 20% of Sears employees and from just 26% of Kmart employees, the lowest rated CEO. Instead he focused on retail, choosing to turn Blockbuster into a one-stop entertainment shop selling everything you could need around watching a video in house. Kalanick has been vocal in his encouragement for such aggression and alpha male chest beating. The age of the American CEO did not begin until the end of the 19th century. At a conference call with analysts in 2007, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Blockbuster had thrown everything at them but the kitchen sink. In April, however, the bad press finally caused investors to cut the price they said they were willing to pay for Uber stock on the secondary market by about 15% to a level that values Uber at around $50 billion, according to one broker - $10 billion lower than the company had been valued at in February.Obviously, while this all sounds terrible, Kalanick did build Uber from nothing into the behemoth it is today. He was deposed by the board in 1993 with the company on the brink of bankruptcy.Failed Republican leadership candidate Carly Fiorina became CEO of HP in 1999 and left the company in 2005. He is certainly not, by any stretch of the imagination, the worst CEO in history and he is hardly leaving Uber completely down and out. With the exception of Tumblr, none of Yahoo’s acquisitions made so much as a ripple on the consumer radar. And not accepting political ads is a remarkably dumb decision. There were accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, as well as an intellectual property lawsuit from Waymo and accusations of corporate espionage from Lyft.

However, they had introduced their own online platform, Total Access, and the option of being able to take DVDs you rented back to a Blockbuster store was proving popular. Mayer got a payout believed to be in the region of $260 million that few would argue is deserved.John Sculley notoriously forced Steve Jobs out of Apple, a move that was to be made to look even more foolish in 1997 when Jobs was brought back in.

Prior to his resignation, Uber had suffered a number of scandals, all of which were blamed largely on the culture Kalanick had implemented. Blockbuster COO Nick Shepherd sent Hasting’s office a kitchen sink the next day with a note that read simply, ‘Here’s your sink.’Then, following some boardroom machinations, Antioco was pushed out and Keyes was brought in. Related Articles. On January 10th, 2000, Levin, Case and a host of other executives from both companies announced the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Lead Here's How 3 of the World's Worst CEOs Almost Killed Their Companies by Creating a Toxic Culture Their behavior is a master class in how not to be a leader. Keyes cut spending on Total Access, and while subscribers remained stable at 3.1 million, there was no growth, while Netflix continued to boom. Citigroup's India-born chief Vikram Pandit has found a place among the 20 worst ever CEOs in America, but the top honours has gone to bankrupt Lehman Brothers' Dick Fuld. Not Twitter. This might have worked, if any of the startups had been any good.