The 9 most expensive mistakes cost hundreds of millions of dollars because of a decimal point

Mondo Education Updated on 2024-03-07

It's all human beings who make mistakes. However, you've probably never made such a serious mistake. These huge oversights and mistakes cost these people millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars. Here are definitely the 9 most expensive mistakes made in history.

In 2014, SNCF mistakenly bought 2,000 "too big" trains. Most of the platforms are too narrow to accommodate new trains. This "little thing" cost them around 50 million euros.

This problem occurred because the operator ignored the measurements of the train platform built more than 50 years ago. It will take two years to expand the 1,300 platforms to accommodate trains. This process is not only costly, but also time-consuming.

In 1999, due to a communication failure, NASA lost a 1$2.5 billion satellites. When calculating the coordinates of the communication station, Lockheed Martin engineers use the imperial system, while NASA uses the metric system. This mistake caused the Mars orbiter to deviate from its target and its engines to burn out and disappear.

Competition between measurement systems is a common struggle. In this case, a small mistake ended up costing the team of engineers dearly.

You may not have read Harry Potter books or seen its movies, but you've at least heard the name. J.K. Rowling is the author of this book, and her origins are absolutely humble. She writes Harry Potter stories mostly on scrap paper.

J.K. Rowling shared several of her rejection letters on Twitter to inspire her many fans. One publisher said: "I regret that we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we could not publish Harry Potter and achieve commercial success. ”

But in the end: book sales alone, the total revenue of the Harry Potter series is about $7.7 billion.

In 2013, Spain** spent $2.2 billion on the construction of a new submarine called the Isaac Peral. Before the construction was complete, the engineers identified a problem in the design. Before the construction was completed, the submarine was already heavy.

Because the vessel is so heavy, it runs the risk of not being able to resurface after sinking underwater. Engineers were able to trace the problem back to the miscalculations that were prone to occur when drafting the design. The problem is that someone puts the decimal point in the wrong place. Fortunately, this mistake was discovered before the submarine was built.

In December 2005, Mizuho Securities Co., LtdSuffered significant losses due to incorrect data entry by a ** broker. Initially, he intended to issue a share of J-com at the New York Stock Exchange for 610,000 yen (about $5,000), but in the end he issued 610,000 shares for 1 yen.

Investors seized the opportunity to find a large number of mispricing. Exchange rules only allow ** for as little as 572,000 yen***, which mitigates losses to some extent. But because of this mistake, the company lost about 2$2.5 billion.

It's hard to say which band will become popular in the future. When you're a record label, you have to constantly roll the dice on artists who you think have a bright future.

Dick Rowee, an executive at Decca Records, turned down the band when he auditioned for "Silver Beatles." He abandoned the band because he believed that guitar** had been in decline by 1962. Soon after, the Beatles signed with EMI.

In 1964 alone, Wall Street** estimated that they had sales of a record $50 million.

In 2005, Yahoo owned a 30% stake in Alibaba, China's profitable multinational e-commerce, technology, and retail giant. Seven years later, they sold half of their shares to Alibaba for $13 per share. At the time, it seemed like a good deal. Yahoo made $7.6 billion.

In 2014, Alibaba went public and its share price rose to $68 per share, breaking all-time records. Today, Alibaba's worth is $150, and Yahoo gave its internet business to Verizon in 2017 for $4.8 billion.

The oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, refers to the addition of a comma before the last binding, such as "and, or, nor", etc., when listing multiple objects in English, to reduce possible ambiguity.

This was quite a headache for Oakhurst Dairy's transport division – an overtime dispute between the company and its drivers was caused by the lack of an Oxford comma. The lawyer representing the driver argued that the contracts signed by the employees contained a sentence that required an oxford comma to say that overtime pay was waived under certain circumstances. As a result of the settlement, the company paid $5 million to the drivers.

A £18.2 million bridge connecting the banks of the River Thames was completed on 10 June 2000. Three days later, the bridge was closed due to shaking. About 160,000 people passed through the pedestrian bridge on the weekend it opened, and many were shocked by the rapid movement of the fixtures.

The popularity of pedestrian bridges has led to this problem; Because too many people walked on the sidewalk on the bridge deck, the bridge shook. After attracting attention, the bridge was immediately closed; However, more funds must be raised to rectify the problem. It was two years before the bridge was opened again.

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