Equatorial waited out Enel's Brazilian flop, then bought Celg-D for R$1.58bn
After losing the 2016 Celg-D auction, Brazil's loss-fixing distributor Equatorial bought the Goiás utility from Enel for less than the seller had paid.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDDespegar survived COVID's travel wipeout, then sold itself to Prosus for $1.7 billion
Latin America's biggest online travel agency absorbed a 50% revenue collapse, rebuilt on cost discipline, and exited via a $1.7B all-cash Prosus takeover.
Read the caseBAT paid a 20% premium for Bentoel to buy its way into Indonesia's kretek market
Locked out of the world's fifth-largest cigarette market, BAT paid $494M for its No.4 player and merged its own small local unit into Bentoel.
Read the caseZscaler made zero trust the network and crossed $2B revenue
Zscaler rejected perimeter appliances for a cloud security exchange; FY2024 revenue rose 34% to $2.17B.
Read the caseYouTube dropped video dating and opened itself to every clip
When nobody uploaded dating videos, YouTube abandoned 'Tune in, Hook up' and became a general video site Google bought for $1.65B.
Read the caseWPP's pre-COVID simplification made the ad giant resilient in 2020
WPP started a radical simplification in 2018; by COVID year 2020, cost savings and lower debt cushioned the shock.
Read the caseWorkday linked finance and HR and turned GAAP profitable
Workday expanded from HCM into a finance-and-people platform; FY2024 revenue rose 17% and net income hit $1.38B.
Read the caseWolt turned delivery discipline into a €7B local-commerce exit
Wolt used the delivery boom to prove an efficient city-by-city model, then sold to DoorDash while keeping its brand and leader.
Read the caseWhatsApp turned a status app into a 450M-user messaging network
Jan Koum started with address-book status updates, then made phone numbers the identity layer for simple mobile messaging.
Read the caseWarburtons' fifth generation refocused the bakery and became a UK staple
Jonathan, Ross and Brett Warburton exited distractions, nationalized the brand and kept investing beyond white bread.
Read the caseVolkswagen replaced the fading Beetle with the Golf and returned to profit
VW escaped its Beetle dependence by launching the front-drive Golf, then recovered from a 1974 loss to profit in 1976.
Read the caseVirgin Atlantic used a court plan to survive and regain record revenue
Virgin Atlantic's £1.2B 2020 recapitalisation preserved the airline; 2023 revenue reached a record £3.1B.
Read the caseUni-President handed Alex Lo the chair and compounded Taiwan food retail
Founder Kao Ching-yuan gave his son-in-law Alex Lo the chair in 2013; revenue later rose to NT$581.1B in 2023.
Read the caseTwitch spun out Justin.tv's gaming category and became a $970M platform
Justin.tv followed its strongest category, spun gaming into Twitch in 2011, and sold to Amazon for about $970M three years later.
Read the caseTupperware sold to lenders and kept core markets alive
Tupperware's 2024 Chapter 11 sale preserved the brand, core markets, and a digital-first reset under new owners.
Read the caseTrek handed the bike maker to John Burke, who refocused it on quality
Richard Burke's son took over in 1997, cleaned up focus and helped turn Trek into a global bike business.
Read the caseTreeHouse Foods answered JANA by selling meal prep and simplifying
JANA won two board seats in 2021; TreeHouse later sold much of meal prep for $950M and focused on snacks and beverages.
Read the caseCoca-Cola bought Topo Chico and scaled a Texas cult mineral water
Coca-Cola acquired Topo Chico's US rights in 2017, planning national expansion while preserving the 1895 brand's heritage.
Read the caseTomTom sold Telematics and rebuilt around location technology
TomTom sold Telematics for EUR910M in 2019, returned EUR750M, and by 2023 had EUR491M in Location Technology revenue.
Read the caseToast made restaurant software profitable after handing a founder the CEO seat
Toast put co-founder Aman Narang in charge in 2024 and reached its first GAAP profitable year.
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