Open records
5 of 20 records, free, exactly as they appear in the set. 6 more verified records are in the purchased files.
| Company | Fork date | The fork | Options | Choice | Stated rationale | What happened | Judgment analyst | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet (Google) Read the story → verified | 2015-08 | Whether to restructure Google into Alphabet, walling off the ad cash engine from the moonshot cash burn |
| Restructure into Alphabet | To give more management scale for unrelated businesses and to let shareholders see cash leaking from the ad business into long-shot ventures | 5 years · 2024 Google Services operating income vs Other Bets loss: Google Services operating income was $121.3 billion; Other Bets lost about $4.4 billion | reversibility low verdict held | Wikipedia / Larry Page (citing Google's official blog post of August 10, 2015) (2015-08); CIO / IDG (2015); Bloomberg Opinion (2021-05); Alphabet Inc. (2025-02) |
| Amazon Read the story → verified | 2003 | Whether to build a data-center competency into a sellable cloud service, funding patience for thin retail |
| Build cloud as a service | AWS was a deliberately built competency whose high margins let Amazon run retail thin on purpose for years | 5 years · 2024 North America retail operating income: $25.0 billion of operating income at a 6.44% margin | reversibility low verdict held | GeekWire (2026-03); TechCrunch (2016-07); Amazon.com, Inc. (2025-02); stock-analysis-on.net (2026-02) |
| Berkshire Hathaway Read the story → verified | 1967-03 | Whether to buy an insurer to use its float as investable capital rather than treat it as a regulatory necessity |
| Buy insurer, invest float | The gap between collecting premiums and paying claims was a borrowing facility the world had failed to value, providing cheap leverage to fund investing | 5 years · 2024 Underwriting gain: $9.02 billion underwriting gain across all insurance operations in 2024, after ~$1.2 billion in Helene and Milton claims | reversibility low verdict held | Wikipedia / Wikimedia Foundation (2024); Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (1997); Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (2018-02); Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (2025-02); Reinsurance News (2025-02) |
| Comcast Read the story → verified | 2024-11 | Should Comcast spin off its declining cable networks while keeping the broadband engine funding its streaming bet? |
| Spin off cable networks | Amputate the cable channels most exposed to cord-cutting so broadband cash could concentrate on the streaming bet Comcast still believed in. | 1 year · 2026 Peacock subscribers and loss: reached 46 million paying subscribers while posting a $432 million quarterly loss | reversibility low verdict held | NBCUniversal / Comcast Corporation (2024-11); U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission / Comcast Corporation (2025-03); Comcast Corporation Investor Relations (2026-01); The Hollywood Reporter (2026-04) |
| CVS Health Read the story → verified | 2018 | Should CVS acquire Aetna to become a vertically integrated diversified health company? |
| Acquire Aetna insurer | To become a vertically integrated health company combining insurance, pharmacy, and care delivery under one roof. | 5 years · 2024 Total operating income: fell 38% to $8.5 billion, dragged by the insurance arm | reversibility low verdict partial | CVS Health Corporation / SEC EDGAR (2025-02); CVS Health Corporation Investor Relations / PR Newswire (2025-02); CVS Health Corporation Investor Relations (2025-02) |
What is in the set
ExcelSortable records, outcomes and sources
JSONDrop it into your AI workspace
PowerPointOne record per slide, action titles, source lines
WordEditable, with the source appendix
PDFThe reading copy
- 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.