Tech and entertainment brands BlackBerry, Time Warner Cable, Zynga, DirecTV and Shutterfly have been listed among the top 10 brands that are likely to disappear by 2015.
The listing by 24/7 Wall St predicts that BlackBerry is about to run out of its nine lives.
The iconic smartphone maker which famously ignored the threat of Apple’s iPhone when it arrived in 2007 is continuing its multi-year revenue slide. In the most recently reported quarter BlackBerry’s revenue dropped to US$966m from US$3.1bn a year earlier.
Time Warner Cable is predicted to be gone as a brand by the end of 2014 after accepting an offer from Comcast for US$45.2bn earlier this year. The biggest hurdle to the deal, however, is federal government approval in the US. Many who oppose the mega-merger, including Netflix, believe the combination will create a monopoly and lead to higher prices that will be passed on to consumers.
Another mega-merger that may result in the death of a brand will be that of DirecTV, which is being acquired by AT&T for US$49bn. Also yet to get federal approval, the new company will be able to control access to popular TV programming like NFL games.
Unable to match the success of Farmville Zynga is tipped to be the single greatest social media failure among recent IPOs. Facebook ended its relationship with Zynga in 2012, effectively limiting its access to the social network’s 1bn-plus users. It also faces new competition in the form of Candy Crush creator King Digital as well as established giants like EA. Also its daily active users fell in the first quarter of 2014 by 50pc to 28m.
Web 1.0 business Shutterfly is also predicted to disappear, eclipsed by Facebook which sees users upload 350m photos a day, not to mention other photo-sharing services like Instagram and Dropbox. The company has retained an investment bank to find a buyer.
