👉 Background: Treasury Wine Estates is the ASX-listed wine maker behind some big wine brands around the world including Squealing Pig, 19 Crimes and Pepperjack, as well as its biggest money-spinner - Penfolds. On the other side, they also own a heap of cheaper brands like Wolf Blass, Lindemans, Yellowglen and Blossom Hill.

‍👉 What happened: In August last year, Treasury announced plans to sell the lower-priced brands due to a declining interest in cheap wine. But now, Treasury has announced it won’t be selling the cheap brands anymore because it couldn’t find a buyer at the price they wanted.

‍👉 What else: Apparently they only received lowball offers. So now, they’re accepting that it’s their own responsibility to maintain these brands. But given these brands aren’t part of their growth story - you’ve gotta imagine these brands will just continue to decline further and further.

What's the key learning?

💡A failed sale can be worse than no sale at all. Treasury has already written down the value of these brands on their books by $354 million and still couldn’t find a buyer.

💡Announcing that a brand or business is up for sale—only to get zero decent offers — can be a pretty bad look:

• It makes people wonder what’s wrong with it?
• It can spook investors
• It can even leave employees and customers feeling uneasy about the future.
  

💡 Due to these potential negative impacts, companies often prefer to negotiate sales confidentially and only make public announcements once a deal is finalised.