The 20-year history of the once-great diversified conglomerate CSR is littered with monumentally large and poor asset purchases.
The most recent, and arguably one of the worst, was buying and pumping further money into two large glass businesses in 2007 and 2008 for about $1.2 billion.
If the chief executive responsible for those decisions still held office he would probably be packing his desk photos in cardboard boxes. But he has already walked the plank after the second write-down of the glass business Viridian (formerly Pilkington). The first $280 million hit was in 2009; the second of $250 million was made in 2010.
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