There are countless success stories of entrepreneurial innovations and ventures, some from years back, and some more recently. Especially when a company is as big and as internationally recognized as IBM, the stock of good stories is endless. But amidst those stories there are a few bad ones – stories of failures and debacles. These bad-ending stories deserve to be told just as the good ones, because there is as much to learn from mistakes as from successes.

Anthony Vandewerdt, an IT professional and a storage blogger based out of Melbourne, Australia recounts one such story involving a botched business deal, a ship full of photocopiers and IBM. Here is a sneak-peak of the story.

In 1981 IBM Office Products Division (popularly known as OPD) made one of the most spectacularly bad deals in IBM history. A deal that spawned a product that IBM could barely sell and was forced to withdrew in less than 2 years.

To find out what really happened, check out Vandewerdt’s blog- “Remembering when a camera company took IBM to the cleaners.”