Open records
5 of 138 records, free, exactly as they appear in the set. 100 more verified records are in the purchased files.
| Company | Fork date | The fork | Options | Choice | Stated rationale | What happened | Judgment analyst | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activision Blizzard Read the story → verified | 2022-01-18 | Should Activision accept Microsoft's acquisition offer that rested on two franchises leaning on platforms it didn't own? |
| Accept Microsoft acquisition | The premium was paid for two franchises and for moving the toll booth in-house under Microsoft's roof, since 38% of revenue passed through Apple and Google that Activision couldn't negotiate away. | 1 year · 2023-09-26 regulatory review: The FTC authorized an administrative complaint against the merger, which was withdrawn and returned to adjudication multiple times through at least September 26, 2023. | reversibility low verdict too-early | Activision Blizzard / SEC EDGAR 8-K (2022-01); Activision Blizzard / SEC EDGAR (2023-02); Federal Trade Commission (2023-09) |
| Activision Blizzard Read the story → verified | 2016-02-23 | How to reach the mobile audience: buy King or build a mobile business |
| Buy King | Audiences are slow to build, so buy the company that already owns the mobile audience rather than grow into it | 5 years · 2022 GAAP net revenues: fell from $8.80 billion in 2021 to $7.53 billion in 2022, a 14% decline | reversibility low verdict held | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission / Activision Blizzard (2016); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission / Activision Blizzard (2015-11); Variety (2023-10); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission / Activision Blizzard (2023-02) |
| Adobe Read the story → verified | 2009-10 | Whether to acquire Omniture to own the web-analytics data layer atop its creative and web-publishing tools |
| Buy Omniture analytics | Omniture measured engagement on the websites Adobe's tools now built, so Adobe already owned the pixels and now owned the data about who saw them | 3 years · 2012 subscription binding across arcs: By 2012 Creative Cloud subscriptions tied creative tools, document workflows, and marketing analytics to a single login for the same enterprise customer | reversibility low verdict held | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Adobe Systems Inc. Form 8-K (2009-10); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — Adobe Systems Inc. Form 8-K (FY2012 Q3 and Q4 earnings releases) (2012) |
| Alphabet (Google) Read the story → verified | 2005 | Whether to diversify away from advertising or acquire the next attention surfaces (phones and video) to widen the ad funnel |
| Acquire attention surfaces | Owning where attention was moving (phones and video) kept the ad machine from being locked out of the next platform | 5 years · 2023 Google Services operating profit: the same Services segment that earned nearly $96 billion in operating profit in 2023 | reversibility low verdict held | VentureBeat / Android Authority (2022); SEC / Google Inc. (2006-10); StatsUp / Analyzify (2025); SEC / Alphabet Inc. (2024-01); SEC / Alphabet Inc. (2024-01) |
| Alphabet (Google) Read the story → verified | 2005-08 | Whether to acquire and give away a mobile OS (Android) to prevent a rival from owning the search default |
| Acquire Android OS | To prevent whoever owned the dominant mobile OS from controlling the search default and swapping Google out | 5 years · 2023 Search & Other revenue concentration: Search and Other alone was about $175 billion of revenue — roughly 57% of the entire company | reversibility low verdict held | Android Authority (2023-05); Bullfincher (derived from Alphabet SEC filings) (2026-05) |
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- Fork date at the precision the record supports, never sharper.
- The fork, the options, the choice in the form the company faced them.
- Stated rationale as the company gave it or the record documents it, not our theory.
- Capital committed where the record states it; blank where it does not.
- Outcomes at one, three and five years or latest, each dated and cited.
- Reversibility and verdict as analyst judgments, marked as such.
- Every source, with dates and links, per record and in an appendix.