Harley nearly failed 25 years ago, when it was caught up in a disastrous merger, endless labor strife and shoddily made motorcycles.

With capricious management, a disastrous merger and an overly ambitious appetite for acquiring other companies, it seems something of a miracle that Studebaker managed to survive into the 1960s as an automobile producer.

(The railroad eventually failed anyway, after its disastrous merger with the New York Central).

Last month, Mr. Case, the co-founder of America Online and an architect of its disastrous 2000 merger with the media giant, called for Time Warner to be split apart.

The deal, if ratified by Adelphia's creditors and the bankruptcy judge, would be Time Warner's first major acquisition since its disastrous merger with AOL in January 2000.

He is eager, said one person involved in the Adelphia negotiations, to restore his company's reputation as a deal maker after its disastrous merger with AOL in the 1990's.

Also discussed are some of Turner's more controversial business moves, such as the disastrous merger of his corporation Time Warner with AOL.

Few blamed him for the disastrous merger with AOL.

The beginning of the end came with the disastrous merger with Eskimo, a former competitor, in 1977, after the company had already started facing some economic problems.

But HFS's disastrous merger with CUC International, a direct marketing company, to form Cendant in late 1997 erased much of that success.