• Our story begins with an album called Taylor Swift, an [originally] 11 track album where she sings about six boys: Drew Dunlap (Tim Mcgraw; Our Song), Jordan Alford a.k.a the one Swift will tell her friends 'is gay' (Pictures to Burn),Drew Hardwick (Teardrops on My Guitar; Invisible), some unnamed dude (Cold as You), random crush (Stay Beautiful), and Sam Armstrong (Should've Said No). This album, according to wikipedia, was recorded in 2005 (when she was 15; 16 on December 13th).
• In 2008, Taylor Swift accused Joe Jonas of breaking up with her in a 27 second phone call. Taylor also accused Joe of cheating with Camilla Belle ("She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress"). Jonas had a different story:

• In 2023, Jonas tells Dax Shepard on his podcast, Armchair Expert, that he and Swift are 'cool' and that he doesn't want beef with the Swifties.
• In late 2023, Taylor Swift inserts herself in Joe's divorce drama (while 'happily' dating Travis Kelce), taking Sophie Turner's side -- a woman Swift hadn't seen in years; Sophie was never part of the girl squad and never had a public dinner with Swift pre-divorce. Post-divorced, Swift is papped having dinner with 3 friends, including Sophie, who have all dated Jonas brothers: Gigi Hadid (Joe) and Selena Gomez (Nick). Oh, and Pat Mahome's wife was there too.
• In 2009, a boy named Lucas Till escapes her wrath by being boring. He claims it went nowhere because they never fought.

• In 2009, Taylor Swift (19) dates Taylor Lautner (17). They break up in December. Throughout 2009, Swift had become close with John Mayer (daddy issues)...while she was with Lautner. https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-john-mayer-relationship-timeline/
• Taylor Lautner, after the Taylor break-up, went on to marry...Taylor. Huh. Taylor is oddly close with Taylor and Taylor. I'm sorry, but that's just weird. I sincerely hope it was a PR stunt. Nothing wrong with being cordial to an ex, but being bffs and hiring him in a music video -- an ex who never stops talking about your old relationship decades later and marrying someone with your name -- just seems odd.
• In January 2010, Swift and Mayer become official. After they break up, Swift writes 'Dear John' about Mayer, while he writes 'Paper Dolls' about Swift, accusing her of being '22 girls in 1' and 'unaware of what she's running from.' In retrospect, he read her.
• It is said Cory Monteith, Chord Overstreet, and Zac Efron went on a date with Swift, but luckily for those men nothing came from it. This probably happened sometime between 2009-2011. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and guess it was in the month long breaks between her relationships.

• Swift writes 'Enchanted' about Adam Young after knowing him for 10 minutes.
• Apparently had something with Martin Johnson while making 'Two is Better Than One'.
• In 2010, she dates Jake Gyllenhaal (again, daddy issues) for 3 MONTHS. She would go on the sing about him for 13+ years (see: The Manuscript) and make a short film about him 4 years into her relationship with Joe. It must've been good.
• Swift (21) befriends Conor Kennedy (17) a few weeks after his Mother's suicide. As soon he turned 18 (he was still in High School), they begin dating. Within 5 weeks, Swift's people bought her a property in Conor's neighborhood. Relationship ends October 2012 when Conor understandably freaks the fuck out and realizes he's dating female Patrick Bateman. It's worth noting Swifties consider a 19/20 year old adult to have been groomed by Mayer and Gyllenhaal , but nobody really talks about Conor for some reason.

• From November 2012 to January 2013, Taylor Swift is with Harry Styles. I'm not sure what else to say here, except the relationship must've effected her because she stayed single (publicly) for a whopping 2 years.
• Swift has a very public, 15 month relationship with Calvin Harris. She posts multiple pics of Calvin and herself on IG. She describes her relationship with Calvin as 'magical'. It seems as if she's finally found... the love of her life!!!
• Taylor Swift cheats on Calvin Harris with Tom Hiddleston. They officially start dating in May 2016. Hey, isn't May 2016 when Taylor attended the Met Gala and met Jo...
• On another note, it's stated in TTPD that Swift wanted Matty Healy to swoop in and rescue her from Calvin.

• Swift and Hiddleston break up in September. The reported reason for their break up? Swift didn't want to go public with him, despite constantly being in IG photos and staged pap pics with the man.
• Swift responded with Getaway Car and mocked him in the Look What You Made Me Do music video. Tom, meanwhile, called Taylor a lovely woman and said they had been in love.

• For 6/7 years, Taylor Swift was in a relationship with Joe Alwyn. Despite breaking up with Hiddleston because Swift wanted a low profile relationship, there's a narrative that Swift was upset Alwyn tried to avoid saying too much about Taylor in public.
• It is reported Joe and Taylor break up in April 2023. In May 2023, she is reported to be dating Matty Healy. In June 2023, it is reported she and Matty broke up. People magazine claims it was "always casual" https://people.com/taylor-swift-matty-healy-break-up-split-7508332 (cue Curb Your Enthusiasm theme).
• Cososom paints a narrative that 'the decade had played her and Matty for fools' and that she 'changed lovers (Harris, Hiddleston, Alwyn) to escape him'.......when the fuck was Matty Healy in the picture between 2015-2021? I honestly don't know the lore. Am I missing something? Is this a retcon?
• It is revealed Matty Healy has a small dick, he's terrible in bed, he's a druggy, he has a bad suit. Oh, and he smells like poopy!

• August 2023: It is reported Kelce and Swift are hanging out, but sources continue to deny it (probably the same source that claimed Healy and Swift were casual).
• Remember when she broke up with Hiddleston because she didn't want to go public after 5 months of dating?
• Kelce and Swift give two contradictory accounts of how they started dating: in his WSJ interview, he says someone played cupid. In her POTY interview, Swift says she saw him on the podcast.
• E.T. claims "both their parents see an engagement coming sooner than later"
• It is currently May 28th, 2024. Between Eras and Football season, Kelce and Swift have approximately spent 75 days together.

1. Verizon Quick Charge 24 W
   
2. Motorola Turbo Power Supply 8 W
   
3. Apple 5 W
   
4. Essential 27 W
   
5. 2 x Huawei 18 W
   

1. 3 x USB-A to USB-C
   
2. 1 x USB-C to USB-C (for the Essential power adapter)
   
3. 2 x USB-A to Lightning
   
4. 1 x USB-C to Lightning
   

"I worked really hard to be mediocre. But I studied. When I lay my head on my pillow, I’m very satisfied, not so much with my record or my numbers, but I know I gave it everything I had every day." -- Dave Eiland

"It was the first batter. It only counts for one run." -- Dave Eiland

"As far as I'm concerned, it was a stupid move on the part of the Yankees and I'm looking forward to leaving. I've done a lot more for them than some of the people they have kept. I guess I didn't fit into their plans. It doesn't make sense." -- Dave Eiland

"It was a fluke. I wish people would talk about my pitching instead of my hitting." -- Dave Eiland

“I didn’t have the God-given ability to get over the hump, so to speak. I kept getting chances because I did my work and I think that helps me in the coaching aspect. I work with guys now who have ability. I can teach them how to work, how to study film, how to read swings, how to attack guys.” -- Dave Eiland

• Dave Eiland's last name is pronounced EYE-land, and his Chris Berman nickname is Dave "No Man Is An" Eiland. It's from a 1624 poem by John Donne: "No man is an island, entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."
  
• Eiland was an extra in the 1999 movie For Love of the Game and was the "pitching double" for Kevin Costner. "Any time you saw the ball cross the plate, I probably threw that pitch," Eiland said in a February interview with breakingbatspod. "Even though he says he threw every pitch in that movie, I can tell ya, no he didn't." Eiland also was used as Costner's "body double" in long shots to feature an authentic MLB delivery. Eiland's IMDB page lists his role as "relief pitcher" -- he's the pitcher the Tigers manager briefly considers sending out to pitch the 9th inning.
  
• According to The Baseball Filmography by Hal Erickson, the Yankees and Tigers -- the two teams featured prominently in For Love of the Game -- required anyone in a uniform had to either be a professional actor (like Costner) or a former or active baseball player. In other words, no off-the-street extras in the dugout. As a result, several players were in the background, including Yankees Eiland, Donzell McDonald, Scott Pose, Mike Buddie, and previously forgotten Yankee Ricky Ledee.
  
• Dave's father, Bill Eiland, was chief of police in Zephyrhills from 1961 to 1996. Eiland Boulevard in Zephyrhills is named in Bill Eiland's honor.
  
• The 6'3" Eiland was a wide receiver and punter in high school, and Florida envisioned him as a tight end. But he bulked up so much that summer in the weight room that the Gators were going to switch him to fullback. A shoulder injury ended his collegiate football career before it ever began, however.
  
• The 1987 draft was a particularly bad one for the Yankees. We didn't have a 1st or 2nd round pick, and the next four players drafted -- Bill Dacosta, Doug Gogolewski, Red Morrison, and Pop Popplewell -- never made it out of the minors. And so Eiland, our 7th round pick, was the first player drafted by the Yankees in 1987 to reach the Show. In fact, of the 54 players drafted by the Yankees that year, only one other made it to the majors with the Yankees: Gerald "Ice" Williams, taken in the 14th round, 367th overall. Three others were drafted by the Yankees, but reached the majors with other organizations: Terry Bradshaw (17th round, 445th overall) -- no, not that one -- a high school player who didn't sign after the Yankees drafted him, instead going to Norfolk State University and getting drafted three years later by the Cardinals, and making his debut with them in 1995; James Mouton (42nd round, 1,057th overall), another high school player who didn't sign and went to Saint Mary's College of California, got drafted in 1991 by the Houston Astros, and made his debut with them in 1994; and Brad Ausmus (48th round, 1,152nd overall), who was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 expansion draft but traded to the Padres the following season, and he made his debut with them in 1993. The other 49 players drafted by the Yankees that year never reached the majors at all.
  
• If you get a time machine, tell the Yankees to use one of those wasted 1987 picks to take 1990s five-category roto god Reggie Sanders, taken by the Reds with the #180 pick. You might be tempted to tell them to take the high school pitcher the Orioles found in the 11th round (#273 overall), but Mike Mussina isn't going to sign -- he's going to Stanford University. The Orioles drafted him again three years later, this time in the 1st round.
  
• Eiland said early in his career he was a two-pitch pitcher, relying on his fastball and slider, but later learned to use a changeup and curveball to tantalize batters with pitches that sometimes didn't break 70 mph.
  
• Eiland wore four numbers with the Yankees: #52, #28, #58, and #47. With the Padres, he wore #45; with Tampa Bay, #48.
  
• No one has worn #52 since C.C. Sabathia, who had it from 2009 to 2019. Prior to him, players who wore it more than one season include Jose Contreras (2003-2004), David Weathers (1996-1997), Mark Hutton (1994-1996), Doyle Alexander (1976, 1982-1983); Mike Griffin (1979-1981); and Joe Verbanic (1967-1970).
  
• #28, which Eiland wore from 1989 to 1991, is currently worn by Austin Wells; prior to that, it was worn by Josh Donaldson (2022-2023) and Corey Kluber (2021). Others who wore it three or more seasons: Melky Cabrera (2006-2008), Chad Curtis (1997-1999), Scott Kamieniecki (1993-1996), Bob Watson (1980-1982), Sparky Lyle (1972-1978), Bud Daley (1961-1964), Art Ditmar (1957-1961), Tom Morgan (1951-1956), Tommy Byrne (1946-1951), Atley Donald (1938-1945), and previously forgotten Yankee Myril Hoag (1931-1936).
  
• Eiland wore #58 in 1990, which was worn from 2021 to 2023 by Wandy Peralta. Other long-time wearers of #58 were Jeff Karstens (2006-2007), Colter Bean (2005-2006), Randy Choate (2000-2001), Juan Espino (1982-1986), and previously forgotten Yankee Dooley Womack (1966-1968).
  
• And finally, Eiland wore #47 during his second stint with the Yankees in 1995. It's currently worn by Victor Gonzalez, and the two seasons before that by Frankie Montas. Others who wore it at least three seasons: Jordan Montgomery (2017-2022), Ivan Nova (2010-2016), Darrell Rasner (2006-2008), Shane Spencer (1998-2002), Fred Beene (1972-1974), Luis Arroyo (1960-1963), and previously forgotten Yankee Tom Sturdivant (1955-1959).
  
• When he was named Yankees pitching coach in 2008, Eiland was coaching ex-teammates including pitchers Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, as well as catcher Jorge Posada. That helped establish a certain level of trust, Eiland said, "but it’s not like they’re going to stand around and say, 'Remember when we all played together?'"
  
• Eiland told Baseball America in 2019 that what made Mariano so good was he was always trying to improve. "He would always ask me, 'What did you see, was it good?' He always wanted information. He was humble. He never thought he had it all figured out and was always positive."
  
• Eiland said long-time Yankee pitching guru Billy Connors was a big influence on him. The advice he most took to heart: "Keep it simple." In a 2021 article in the New York Post, Eiland said he gave that advice to Jacob deGrom, helping him improve from a good pitcher (45-32, .584 W%, 2.98 ERA, 1.122 WHIP before Eiland was hired prior to the 2018 season) to a great one (39-25, .609 W%, 2.08 ERA, 0.863 WHIP after).
  
• On September 8, 2008, the Yankees lost 12-1 to the Los Angeles Angels, with a bench-clearing brawl in the sixth inning. The brouhaha started when L.A.'s Torii Hunter shoved Yankee catcher Ivan Rodriguez -- remember he was a Yankee? -- after a play at the plate. Pudge then threw a punch at Hunter and the benches cleared. Eiland was in the middle of the fracas and appeared to get hit in the face. After the game, the 42-year-old pitching coach passed out in the dugout and the Yankee players helped carry him to the clubhouse, where he was examined by a doctor. "He's been fighting a cold and he worked out hard this morning," manager Joe Girardi said. "I think the last time he ate was 1 o'clock. He took some medicine during the game and got lightheaded and dizzy and passed out. But he's OK now. I just told him to eat."
  
• In 1999, the Tampa Bay Times reported Eiland was the Columbus Clippers all-time leader in wins (67), innings (767), and strikeouts (437). Overall, in 13 seasons in Triple-A, he was 89-49 with a 3.61 ERA and 1.211 WHIP. In 2012, he was inducted into the International League Hall of Fame.
  
• Eiland's wife is Sandra and they have two daughters, Nicole and Natalie.
  

"It's about perseverance. Hard work pays off. Maybe not right away, maybe not overnight. But eventually, it does." -- Dave Eiland

Disclaimer: I'm bringing it here before any shutdown of AMH because lately, there's random stuff being posted there and a lack of control.

• Fox Film and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were planning to merge before being called off.

• Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. called off a merger with Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.

• Suitors including what would become Associated Artists Pictures had been bidding for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's back catalog. MGM would eventually enter the TV market themselves.

• Associated Artists Pictures almost closed a deal to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's shorts library (including the Tom and Jerry shorts) but shut it down due to the (unspecified) price tag.

• National Telefilm Associates announced plans to buy Associated Artists Pictures, which at this point was a subject of litigation. It would be United Artists who would buy them.

• 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer considered merging.

• Orion Pictures looked at buying Embassy Pictures and Allied Artists before settling in on Filmways.
• Warner Communications tried in July to buy back the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-MayeUnited Artists' pre-1950 WB library for the first time. The negotiations fell apart because of dozens of unresolved points, probably relating to the oldest Warner Bros. films. The second time was successful 14 years later with the Turner merger.

• Reliance Insurance attempted to take over Disney.

• Turner attempted to take over the Columbia Broadcasting System for $5.4 billion.
• Viacom was looking to buy 50% of MGM/UA from Turner.

• Carolco Pictures attempted to buy Orion Pictures and Media Home Entertainment.
• NBC considered buying the Turner Broadcasting System.

• MCA offered to buy Disney.
• Bill Cosby tried to buy a stake in NBC.
• Jim Henson attempted to merge his company with The Walt Disney Company for $150 million.
• Before Time Warner, Paramount Communications, which just rose up from Gulf+Western planned to merge with Time Inc before the latter went with Warner Communications.
• Viacom itself even planned to merge with Gulf+Western, 5 years before making a full-on successful buyout.
• Viacom was even in talks with MCA Inc., the owner of Universal Studios, according to the same article.
• Ted Turner somehow tried to repurchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this time including the United Artists side.
  • News Corporation, which also owned 20th Century Fox, also bid for MGM/UA.
  • Qintex (which would later become Seven Media) also planned to buy MGM/UA for A$1.5 billion.

• In March, Brøderbund ended merger talks with Sierra On-Line, and given that date, it most likely started plans in the previous year.
• Turner's New Line Cinema looked into buying Orion, which the interests of Republic Pictures, Savoy Pictures, the American Broadcasting Company, and Polygram would also follow.

• MCA and Hallmark were originally the buyers for Hanna-Barbera but got outbid by Turner, which merged with Time Warner.

• In September, QVC tried a hostile $9.6 billion bid for Paramount Communications before a lawsuit came in, and lost to a $9.85 billion bid from Viacom in February.

• Bell Atlantic planned to buy Tele-Communications Inc. for $33 billion. TCI would later head for AT&T 5 years later.
• Time Warner Communications tried to buy NBC from General Electric for $2 to 2.5 billion.

• News Corporation, MCA, Time Warner Communications and Cinergi placed bids for Carolco Pictures before Le Studio Canal+ took over.
• Brøderbund bid for the original The Learning Company, before SoftKey bought them and adopted their name. They would buy Brøderbund in 1998.

• Before fatefully settling its eyes upon Sierra On-Line and Davidson & Associates (Blizzard, Animation Magic, and Knowledge Adventure), Comp-U-Card International, or more unfortunately named, CUC's Walter Forbes had considered a larger company that consisted of not just Sierra and Davidson, but also Brøderbund and LucasArts.
• After having Broadway Video's family library for dinner, Golden Books planned to buy out Nelvana.
• Microsoft nearly acquired Davidson & Associates (Blizzard) on the first try, but they lost to Comp-U-Card. In December 1997, CUC merged with HFS, and the new company was renamed Cendant, which would suffer a big accounting scandal.
• British Telecom, who owned a partial stake since 1994, bid $22 billion for MCI.
• For a year, Polygram attempted to buy out Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn.
  • News Corporation and Morgan Creek also bid for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

• GTE, which eventually merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon 3 years later, bid $28 billion for MCI. Eventually, Worldcom kicked in.
• GoodTimes Interactive planned to buy MicroProse for $250 million before letting Hasbro Interactive take it in. Coincidentally, both GoodTimes AND Hasbro Interactive would be bought out by Infogrames (later Atari SA) in 1999 and 2001, respectively.
• Epic Pictures had offers to be bought by Artisan, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Disney before PolyGram succeeded to buy it. PolyGram would eventually sell it to Metro-Goldwyn-MayeOrion over a year later.

• Microsoft tried to acquire Davidson & Associates (Blizzard) for the second time from Cendant, but they were beaten by Havas, which was owned by Vivendi.
• Viacom's Paramount Pictures offered to buy French art house studio CiBy 2000 for 500 million francs, or roughly $80 million in USD. The founder's widow, however, refused, and the catalog was dispersed between TF1, MK2, and several companies. Thirty-two years later, Paramount would get almost half of an indie film studio: Miramax.

• MCI Worldcom tried to buy Sprint for $129 billion. After a 2001 scandal, Worldcom (name since 2000) was renamed to MCI Inc., which would get bought by Verizon in 2006. Sprint merged with T-Mobile US 14 years after MCI went to Verizon.
• Global Crossing offered to buy US West for $37 billion before Qwest outbid them. Coincidentally, the rest seems to have been a big wave of all coming together, as Global Crossing (after a bankruptcy in 2002) would get bought by Level 3 in 2011, which itself would be bought in 2016 by CenturyLink WHO MERGED with Qwest back in 2010.
• Artisan Entertainment and Canal+ were speculated to pick up PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
• Two years before the release of the Xbox, Microsoft approached Nintendo about buying them. The deal was that they would make the hardware for Nintendo, but the latter's executives "laughed their asses off."
  • They also tried to buy Squaresoft, Electronic Arts, and Midway around this time.
• CanWest Global attempted to acquire NetStar (which consisted of TSN and Discovery Canada), but was vetoed by ESPN. CTV would eventually buy it.
• Francis Ford Coppola planned to buy United Artists from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

• Activision and partial owner Nintendo bid for Rareware until Microsoft bought them out 2 years later.
• Netflix offers to be bought by Blockbuster for $50 million, but they decline.
• Warner Music Group tried to buy British music label EMI for $20 billion but canceled the merger after pressure. Info here. After EMI's bankruptcy in 2011, Warner would buy Parlophone from it for $765 million, about 40% of EMI's record label.

• Sesame Workshop was put up for sale, with speculated buyers being Viacom, AOL Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, and Classic Media.
  • The Jim Henson Company was also up for sale to The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, HIT Entertainment, AOL Time Warner, Haim Saban, and Classic Media.
• Chris-Craft (involved in the United Paramount Network) offered to be bought by Viacom for $3.1 billion until News Corp came in.
• Before NBC came in, the bidders of Telemundo were Viacom, The Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (later absorbed into Univision), The Walt Disney Company, and AOL Time Warner.

• Viacom and USA Network were originally speculated to buy Fox Family Worldwide before it was sold by News Corp to The Walt Disney Company.

• Emtv tried to sell The Muppets to Sesame Workshop and ClassicMedia.
• Before Lionsgate took the shot, Marvel and Miramax were placing a bid to pick up Artisan.
• Viacom, Liberty Media Corp, News Corporation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Barry Diller were also bidding to buy Universal Studios and its theme parks.

• Comcast tried to buy Disney for $66 billion.
• Take-Two Interactive Software considered buying Vivendi Universal Games for $1 billion, which was below what Vivendi Universal wanted. Vivendi Games, after its parent company stripped itself of Universal Studios to make NBC Universal, would merge with Activision Publishing four years later to create Activision Blizzard, now part of Microsoft.
• In June, an unnamed financier offered $10 million for TheFacebook, the first of many attempts over the next three years.
  • Friendster also offered to buy them, according to documents seen by SAI Global.
  • A couple of Google execs visited Facebook's office to see if there was a way to work with Zuckerberg or perhaps even buy his company.
• 2 years after Kirk Kerkorian put Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer up for sale, Time Warner emerged as a bidder for the studio. The bid wasn't unexpected, as Ted Turner was the largest shareholder. After all, his Turner Entertainment Group had risen to success through its ownership of the pre-May 1986 library, which had been acquired by the bidder when they merged with Turner eight years prior.
• Casey-Werner was looking to sell itself to a large media company but would later decide against selling. The potential suitors were General Electric/Vivendi's NBC Universal and the first incarnation of Viacom, which owned CBS.
• Channel 4 considered merging with Channel 5 for nine months before calling it off. Five would later get bought by RTL Group.

• Viacom offered to buy out TheFacebook for $75 million; the deal would have Mark Zuckerburg earn $35 million "on the spot".
  • MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe also visited Mark and his team to buy them.
  • NBC Universal's NBC execs stopped by "for a peek" this year.
  • In the fall, Mark Zuckerberg flew to New York to meet with Viacom CEO Tom Freston. Tom would pitch all sorts of synergies to Mark between MTV and Facebook.
• Before creating an alliance consisting of Pandemic Studios and BioWare, Elevation Partners planned to buy out Eidos Interactive before SCi (no, not Sony Computer Interactive) stepped in and bought them in May. The Pandemic and BioWare alliance would get bought by Electronic Arts 2 years later, with the former studio shutting down two years later.
• Five months before Viacom purchased Dreamworks SKG, there were rumors that NBC Universal would buy the then-independent studio for $2.5 billion. Dreamworks Pictures already used Universal's film distribution and home entertainment divisions to distribute their products.

• In January, News Corporation's Ross Levinsohn wanted to buy Facebook but was worried the deal might not keep up its growth.
  • Viacom sent the company a $1.5 billion offer--$800 million in cash up front, the rest a payout later. In this case, it's said it "almost sold."
  • In June, Yahoo! offered $1 billion, only to... lower it to $850 million after announcing horrible Q2 earnings.
    • In the fall, they suggested they would pay $1 billion or more.
  • In the middle of the year, AOL's CEO Johnathan Miller wanted to buy the company, convincing Time Inc.'s CEO to come in on the deal they took to their parent company Time Warner. A detailed plan would have AOL sell MapQuest and Tegic, while Time Inc. would sell IPC. Together, they'd offer $1 billion-plus.
• At least according to the YouTuber Hook: before Google came in, the bidders for YouTube were News Corporation, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and even Viacom, the last of which, after the Google purchase, would coldly claim YouTube infringed copyright, losing in the long end, and, after a CEO change, bought VidCon.
• In November, National Transcommunications Limited (or NTL for short) approached ITV plc with a merger bid. However, it would get blocked when British Sky Broadcasting (now Sky UK) bought roughly 18% of ITV for £940 million ($117.3 million in US dollars).
  • RTL Group, who owned Channel 5 at the time, also bid at one point; the plan would have seen RTL acquiring Sky's stake in ITV plc (with the aim of further acquisitions of shares in the future) in exchange for BSkyB taking full control of Channel 5.

• Google offered to buy Facebook.
  • Microsoft also offered to buy a small stake in the platform at a $15 billion valuation, then have the option, every six months, to buy another 5 percent. The complete takeover would've been well within five to seven years. While it never happened, they did buy 1.6% of the company for about $250 million, a deal which set their value at $15 billion.

• A reverse merger deal between DHX Media and Entertainment One was considered.
• Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $47.5 billion until the latter let Google display its ads on the site.
• There were later debunked rumors of Viacom buying Take-Two Interactive, around the time of the next one:
• Electronic Arts even tried to buy Take-Two Interactive until September.
• France Télécom (present-day Orange) planned to buy Swedish telco TeliaSonera for $40 billion, but both could not come to an agreement.
• Square Enix planned to buy Tecmo, but the latter insisted on a merger of equals with Koei.

• Lionsgate announced plans on February 1 to buy Summit Entertainment, but 2 days later, the plans fell through. Lionsgate would end up purchasing Summit in 2012.
• Before Comcast came in, Time Warner and News Corporation were originally interested in buying NBC Universal from General Electric and Vivendi.
• News Corporation, Time Warner, Amir Malin's Qualia Capital, and Lionsgate Entertainment were bidding for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Holdings during its bankruptcy. Time Warner already owned the pre-May 1986 MGM library, had enough cash reserves, and co-produced the Hobbit films with the studio. News Corporation's 20th Century Fox, meanwhile, was Metro Goldwyn Mayer's home entertainment distributor at the time.

• News Corporation made a plan for the takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (already owning 39.1% until then) in June for 700 pounds per share for the remaining 60.9% shares until two turning points came: the removal of regulatory approval from Vincent Cable in December, and the more infamous 2011 News of the World phone hacking incident, which caused the bid to fall to its face.
• In a part 2, two more bidders, Reliance Entertainment (about $1.8 billion) and Relativity Media (about $1.6 billion) went onboard for MGM Holdings. But by November 3rd, MGM Holdings filed bankruptcy and emerged almost a month later when the Federal Bankruptcy Court approved the reorganization plan.

• AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile US for $39 billion.
• Hulu found itself in an unsolicited offer that was said to involve Google and Yahoo!. Ultimately, none of the bidders offered an amount satisfactory to its owners.
• World Wrestling Entertainment and the UFC were in separate talks to buy G4 until UFC went into a deal with Fox and WWE built its network.
• Before Mattel chipped in, the other bidders planning to buy HiT Entertainment from Apax Partners were The Walt Disney Company, the second incarnation of Viacom, rival Hasbro, ClassicMedia (which would be bought by Dreamworks Animation, which is now a Comcast company), Chorion, and Saban Brands.

• CBS was also rumored to buy Sony Pictures from Sony.

• Facebook's Instagram attempted to buy Snapchat for $3 billion in cash due to the latter's introduction of Stories. 3 years later, Instagram made their own Stories.
• Yahoo! considered buying either Netflix or Hulu until they fatefully decided upon Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
  • DirecTV and Time Warner also bid for Hulu.
• Time Warner was stated to be one of the buyers of THQ until its bankruptcy in the same year, followed by Nordic Games buying its trademark in 2014.
  • ZeniMax Media also made a $26.3 million bid for THQ's Relic Entertainment before Sega came in.
• Dish Network considered buying Sprint for $25.5 billion.
• RTL Group's Fremantle attempted to buy out All3Media.
• Microsoft was negotiating to purchase HTC, a fact revealed by former Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa during an interview with the Helsingin Sanomat, or Hesari. Microsoft would later buy Nokia's mobile phone business that year.
  • On the topic of mobile phones, Lenovo planned to buy Blackberry Limited, but the Canadian government blocked the deal due to security concerns because prominent members of governments around the world have used Blackberries themselves. They would later buy Motorola Mobility from Google in January 2014 for $2.91 billion.

• 21st Century Fox offered an $80 billion bid for Time Warner, but a potential CNN spinoff was one of the reasons why it became unattractive and fell.
• Hasbro planned to buy DreamWorks Animation to form Hasbro-Dreamworks, two years before Comcast went in.
  • SoftBank was also planning to buy Dreamworks Animation for $3.4 billion.
• Comcast tried to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion but faced a ton of madness to the point of abandonment.
• BT, ITV plc, Channel 4, Comcast (through NBCUniversal), Endemol, Time Warner, Viacom, Scripps Network Interactive, Saban Capital Group, and a joint bid of BSkyB and Discovery Communications were all bidders reportedly interested in acquiring Channel 5. Viacom won.

• There were some fears of Yahoo! buying Dailymotion from Orange, which were soon quelled by Vivendi's purchase of the site.
• Apple had considered buying TimeWarner.

• Before Viacom bought Telefe from Telefonica, Time Warner and the Cisneros Group were bidding for the network.
• 21st Century Fox tried a $32.5 billion bid for Sky until they were bought by Disney. Comcast eventually kicked in and bought Sky.
• Vivendi attempted a bid to buy out Ubisoft for $6.4 billion before ending the hostile takeover bid 2 years later. Today, Ubisoft is partially owned by Tencent.
• Disney somehow planned to merge with Time Warner before AT&T went into negotiations.
• Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick somehow considered buying TimeWarner before AT&T took it.
• National Amusements sends a letter to both CBS Corporation and Viacom asking them to merge back. It's declined... for now.
• ITV plc placed a £1 billion ($1.3 billion USD) offer to buy eOne, which they rejected. Hasbro bought them for $4 billion in 2019.
• The Walt Disney Company planned to buy Twitter but decided not because there were a substantial amount of bots.
  • Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google were also said to bid for Twitter.
• Viacom tried to sell a stake of Paramount Pictures to Dalian Wanda, but it fell through, thankfully.
• Spotify was rumored to be looking into buying SoundCloud. It would be complementary as Spotify targets signed artists, and SoundCloud targets indies.

• 22 companies comprising but not limited to Viacom, Miramax, Ronald Wayne Burkle's Yucaipa, Lionsgate, A&E, Sony, and MGM all placed bids for The Weinstein Company.
• Viacom was going to take in Scripps Networks Interactive before Discovery Communications came through with a $12 billion outbid.
• Comcast, Sony, and Verizon were the other bidders for 21st Century Fox's assets. Comcast's bid persisted until July 2018, leaving it to The Walt Disney Company in March 2019.
• Tribune Media announced its sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group, but 15 months later, they were sued for a breach of contract. They would merge with future CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group for $4.1 billion.
• Hasbro attempted to buy Lionsgate.

• Viacom, CBS (both would re-merge in 2019), Verizon, Comcast, Amazon (later would buy MGM in 2022), Sony, and Hasbro again were speculated to buy Lionsgate, and there were rumors that a combined CBS-Viacom would buy out the studio, with Vice Chairman Michael Burns implying in an interview with CNBC that Lionsgate, CBS, and Viacom all merge.
• Google was eyeing Epic Games before starting their own cloud service called "Project Stream", later named Stadia, which lasted until 2023.
• Endeavor, All3Media, ITV plc, DHX Media, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, and Fremantle were all in the running for Endemol Shine Group. Banijay would merge with them two years later.

• Univision was speculated to be bought by ViacomCBS in articles like this, before Televisa (sort of) came in 2 years later, to form TelevisaUnivision.
• Before Viacom re-merged with CBS, there were rumors of the latter entity buying Starz from Lionsgate.
• Before ViacomCBS kicked in, the bidders for a 50% stake in Miramax were the second incarnation of Viacom, Lionsgate (which had the home video rights to Miramax, at least in the United States), and Spyglass Media Group, who had been the owner of The Weinstein Company's library a year ago. Spyglass was the first to exit talks, followed by Lionsgate a month later. After two months, Viacom went out of the discussion until the re-merge with CBS Corporation meant they would resume buyout talks with Miramax.
• ViacomCBS was also speculated to buy Discovery pre-announcement of the Warner Bros Discovery deal two years later.
• Continuing on with the post-merger 'nundrum, ViacomCBS was also rumored to buy Sony Pictures and even Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Xerox planned until 2020 to buy out Hewlett-Packard for $33.5 (later $35.0 in the second bid) billion. Hewlett-Packard indicated it would make its counteroffer for Xerox.

• Microsoft not only (and this was very publicized) tried to buy Tiktok, but almost tried to buy out Capcom, Nintendo, and even Warner Bros. Games.
• Apple and Netflix were rumored to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Take-Two Interactive was going to buy Codemasters for $994 million and assign it under 2K, before being trumped by Electronic Arts with a billion-dollar bid.
• ViacomCBS initially planned to sell Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House but ended up in a blockage two years later.
  • Before that announcement, News Corp (HarperCollins) and Vivendi (Editis) were said to be the other bidders for S&S.

• Comcast had some plans to buy Activision Blizzard, at least according to Puck.
• In a better-known attempt, they considered spinning off NBCUniversal and merging it with Electronic Arts, which sadly never materialized.
• Comcast was speculated to merge with ViacomCBS after the announcement of the Warner-Discovery deal, which would only get churned down to SkyShowtime for specific regions.
• Bagdasarian Productions has been reported to have put itself up for sale for about $300 million, with Paramount Global (who has home entertainment rights and Nickelodeon aired the latest show) being the most likely bidder.
• Microsoft was interested in acquiring Zynga before it was sold to Take-Two Interactive Software.
• Microsoft was also seriously planning to buy out some of over a hundred developers and nine publishers, and also considered Sega, Square Enix, and IO Interactive in an April 2021 slideshow given out this year's ruling by the FTC on ActivBliz.
• Lionsgate was planning for as long as into the next year to buy STX.

• Fox Corporation and News Corp were going to merge, only to get called off.
• There were the marathonical rumors of Apple, Disney, and even Amazon buying out Electronic Arts.
• The Washington Post was looking to buy Wordle before The New York Times Company became the buyer.

• Playtika tried to buy Rovio for $813 million before Sega Sammy took the helm.
• Comcast was speculated to buy out World Wrestling Entertainment before Endeavor Group came in.
  • They were also rumored to buy the remaining 67% of Hulu from The Walt Disney Company, until it became the other way around.
• Legendary, Fremantle, and GoDigital Media Group were bidding to buy Entertainment One from Hasbro until Lionsgate won the bidding.
• In the finale of the Simon and Schuster sale, the other bidder besides Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts was News Corp's HarperCollins.
• Paramount Global planned to sell BET to people including Byron Allen, Shaquille O'Neal, and 50 Cent, until deciding that the networks were a core asset.