The Deal: Two years ago this month, the McClatchy Co. paid $4.6 billion to buy Knight Ridder Inc. and its 32 dailies, among them the Miami Herald. McClatchy, based in Sacramento, owned only 12 newspapers at the time, and one analyst joked that “McClatchy is a dolphin swallowing a small whale.” The acquisition, which made McClatchy the third-largest news­paper publisher in the U.S., was expected to save the company more than $60 million once the two firms were fully integrated.

The Aftermath: McClatchy ­immediately sold 12 Knight Ridder ­papers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, and in 2008 laid off 20 percent of its ­employees. But the company is still carrying about $2 billion in debt, and since 2006 its stock has cratered, falling from almost $50 a share to about $1. In 2008, advertising was down 22.4 percent through November.

The Bottom Line: Bad idea, worse timing—as if Zenith had decided to snap up Sony’s Betamax operations circa 1987.