????eBay：作出符合用戶興趣的改變，就算會惹惱其他人也在所不惜。要想出一個吸引大多數人的商業模型是很難的。而找到一個經久不衰，而不僅是一時風靡的商業模型更是難上加難。eBay的拍賣功能就在后繁榮時代風靡一時，使得 在2005年股價上升。不過，之后這股熱潮就開始逐漸消退了。

????公司首席執行官約翰?多納霍花費了幾年時間來對網站進行調整，默默地把它改造成為定價銷售類的網站，以此挽回對拍賣感到厭煩的顧客。然而，這個調整更傾向于規模更大、信用更高的零售商，而另外一些商家則認為被eBay出賣了，于是發起了強烈的抵制。多納霍選擇了忍受批評，以保證轉型的進行。

????某種程度上說，多納霍推動eBay與隨心所欲的拍賣概念漸行漸遠，轉而擁抱貝寶（PayPal）所開創的安全可靠、方便快捷的支付技術。貝寶正是eBay于2002年出于這種需要而收購的無線支付領域的先行者。然而，可靠性只是對顧客而言。貝寶也飽受零售商用戶喋喋不休的抱怨。

????雅虎（Yahoo）：與大型客戶與廣告商建立深厚的聯系。雅虎在蕭條期后的首席執行官是特里?塞梅爾。他曾長期在好萊塢擔任高管，頗受尊敬，但卻未能將雅虎領入社交網絡時代。不過塞梅爾的兩項舉措幫助雅虎在消費者網絡領域繼續占據優勢地位。

????塞梅爾很早就與財力雄厚的廣告商建立了親密的聯系。與Facebook熱切邀請大型廣告商進入移動廣告市場類似，雅虎把它們帶進了網絡市場。雅虎因而有了一個良好的開端，也促使谷歌（Google）收購雙擊公司（DoubleClick）以強化橫幅廣告業務。而這種早期的親密關系也幫助雅虎發展到了今天。

????雅虎雖然搶得了先機，卻依然難以緊跟在線廣告業務的趨勢。2005年，塞梅爾為雅虎做了第二件明智的事，他幫助公司給當時初出茅廬的阿里巴巴（Alibaba.com）投資了10億美元。自那時起，投資的回報增加了雅虎的利潤，讓它能夠慷慨地回報對雅虎自身的投資者。

????換句話說，雅虎持續的成功部分緣于創新，而更多則緣于幸運的投資。由是帶給了我們最后一個啟示。

????Priceline：如果所有努力均告失敗，那就通過收購來改善公司。Priceline最初推出了買方自主定價模式，借此一舉成為互聯網時代的寵兒。事實證明這種模式盡管較為流行，卻不具備公司設想的變革意義。

????Priceline的股票在過去十年中的表現之所以優于以上四家公司，很大程度上是由于它在2005年收購了Booking.com，在2007年又收購了Agoda。這兩次收購分別讓Priceline成為了服務水平低下的歐洲與亞洲市場酒店預訂領域的領袖。

????也許從威廉?夏特納宣揚買方自主定價服務開始，美國人就已經知道Priceline了。不過Priceline之所以成為一家市值600億美元的大公司卻是由于這兩次帶來大量回報的關鍵收購。它們也許不能改變我們旅行的方式，卻讓Priceline從互聯網時代的受害者一躍成為2014年蒸蒸日上的公司。（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正???

????-eBay (EBAY): Adapt to evolving interests of your users, even if you anger some others.It's hard enough coming up with a business model that appeals to the masses. It's even harder to find one that endures longer than a fad. eBay's auctions were a post-boom fad that helped the stock rise through 2005. Then the fad began to fade.

????CEO John Donahoe undertook a multiyear retinkering of the site, quietly gearing it toward fixed-price sales so that consumers who tired of auctions slowly returned to the site. The changes, however, favored bigger, more trusted retailers prompting a vocal backlash among sellers who felt betrayed by the site. Donahoe chose to weather the criticisms to maintain the turnaround.

????In some ways, Donahoe was pushing eBay's marketplace away from the freewheeling idea of auction anything to embrace the security, reliability, and seamless ease of use adopted out of necessity by online-payments pioneer PayPal, which eBay bought in 2002. The reliability, however, was aimed at consumers. PayPal has its own litany of complaints from retailers who use it.

????-Yahoo (YHOO): Establish a deep network of big customers and advertisers. Yahoo's CEO post-bust was Terry Semel, a longtime Hollywood executive who was widely respected, but who failed to lead the company into the era of social networks. But Semel did two things that have helped Yahoo remain a big player in the consumer web.

????Semel established early on a close relationship with deep-pocketed advertisers. In the same way that Facebook (FB) is courting big advertisers into mobile ads, Yahoo was the company that brought them onto the web at all. That gave the company a head start that prompted Google (GOOG) to buy DoubleClick to strengthen its hand in banner ads, and the early relationships have helped Yahoo keep growing today.

????Even with that head start, however, Yahoo has struggled to stay relevant in online ads. The second smart thing Semel did for Yahoo came in 2005: helping the company buy a $1 billion stake in then-fledgling Alibaba.com. The returns on that investment have shored up Yahoo's profits ever since and allowed it to return some of the largesse to Yahoo's own investors.

????In other words, Yahoo's continued success is one part innovation, two parts lucky investments. Which brings us to the final lesson.

????-Priceline (PCLN): If all else fails, buy your way into a better business. Priceline was a dotcom era darling because of its original name-your-own-price business model. It turned out to be modestly popular but nowhere near as transformative as the company once dreamed.

????Instead, the real reason Priceline's stock has outperformed any of the above four companies over the past decade has more to do with its 2005 purchase of Booking.com and, to a lesser extent, its 2007 acquisition of Agoda. Both made Priceline a leader in hotel bookings in Europe and Asia, respectively -- two underserved markets.

????Americans may know Priceline from William Shatner talking about the name-your-price service. But the reason Priceline is a $60 billion company is because of a couple of key acquisitions that provided handsome returns. They may not have transformed how we travel, but they changed Priceline from a dotcom casualty to a thriving company in 2014.