Learn how to buy businesses in 5-minutes or less, once a week. Lessons & specific tactics on how invest your money and generate cash flow for your life.
π Building a 355-year old company (and why it failed)
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Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today:
πMarket your business to Sieva's Business Business Academy audience We began testing with our first advertisers last year, and it turns out this community is incredibly engaged. With 70,000 operators, investors, and "acquisition curious" reading this letter each week, we drove customers for advertisers ranging from Vesto (treasury management platform) to Mainshares (sourcing investors for SMB acquisitions). We are looking for a couple new advertisers to partner with this year as we launch a few new products. Interested in marketing your business to this audience? Just respond to this newsletter and say hi. π What makes a business last for centuries? I love studying businesses that have been around forever. Today, the average public company only lasts about 18 years before being acquired or going bankrupt. Longevity is on the decline in the business world. In the 1950s, public companies had been around for an average of 60 years. With the speed at which technology disrupts business models, it's not a surprise that companies stick around for less time nowadays. That's why I always make an effort to study businesses that have been around forever. What did they do to avoid disruption? How did they survive for so long? The business we're looking at today is an inspiration and a cautionary tale: The Hudson's Bay Company is 355 years old. No, that's not a typo. It started in 1670 and is North America's oldest company. Think of all the seismic changes it survived over the years. The country it's based in didn't even come into existence until 200 years after the company was founded. But unfortunately, Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) went bankrupt last year. After surviving all sorts of other disruptions, online ecommerce is finally what did it in. The company still technically exists, but only employs a few people that are working on winding down the company's operations. Let's take a look at the history of Hudson's Bay Company and figure out how it operated for over three centuries. How HBC Started The Hudson's Bay Company was founded on May 2, 1670, through a royal charter granted by King Charles II of England to a group of adventurers focused on fur trading in North America. Remember, this was back when Canada was still part of England, so it was technically a British company until Canada became independent 200 years later. This charter gave HBC exclusive trading rights over Rupert's Land, a vast territory covering about one-third of modern Canada and parts of the northern United States, marking the start of its extraordinary 355-year lifespan until its bankruptcy in 2025. HBC's Pivots to Survive HBC's longevity stemmed from its remarkable ability to pivot in response to economic shift and geopolitical shocks. Here are just a few examples:
HBC's Downfall - and What Went Wrong By the early 2000s, facing globalization and e-commerce, HBC underwent ownership changes, including a 2006 sale to American investor Jerry Zucker and later to Richard Baker in 2008. Baker refocused the company on luxury retail (acquiring Saks Fifth Avenue) and real estate. This ended up being disastrous timing. Retail began a long, slow decline over the next couple of decades. And HBC failed to truly pivot away from the risk facing its core business. The company struggled to fully adapt to the digital age, losing ground to online giants like Amazon and big-box competitors like Walmart. Its "stay by the Bay" strategy, which emphasized physical locations, failed in the 21st century, leading to mounting debt of over $1 billion and eventual bankruptcy in 2025. Canada's oldest retailer, Hudson's Bay department store, cannot pay its debts.
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The high-end chain, dating back to the 17th-century fur-trade era, has been losing money and shoppers, set back by the pandemic, inflation and lately, trade tensions with the U.S. Now, it's entered a proceeding similar to bankruptcy protection and expects to close some stores.
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"The threat and realization of a trade war has created significant market uncertainty and has impacted our ability to complete these transactions," CEO Liz Rodbell said in a statement, referring to recent attempts to shore up investments.
ββ - NPR, March 10th, 2025 The company operates today with just a few employees who are in charge of liquidating the company's assets, including hundreds of artifacts. Lessons for Business Buyers When I read up on the history of the Hudson's Bay Company, the detail that catches my eye is the decision to abandon the core business in the 1800s. Fur trading was on the decline - after nearly 200 years of dominating that business, the company decided to get out of it and change focus. Common business advice tells us to never abandon the core business. If your company is in trouble, divest from non-core businesses and re-focus on the main part of your business, a management consultant would tell us. I think that lesson is overall correct. But Hudson's Bay shows us that every once in a while (about every 200 years in this case), there is an existential crisis to your business that requires a complete pivot. The first time it happened, HBC took the opportunity to adopt a new business model. The second time, it did not. The company survived the first existential threat, but not the second. π How to Buy & Build Hotels I chatted with Jake Wurzak, CEO of DoveHill, a business that develops and invests in hotels. He's bought dozens of hotels, built new ones, and understands the hospitality world as well as anyone. Jake told me about how he invests in hotels, a joint venture that almost went terribly wrong, and he even critiques the hotel we bought a while ago in Montauk, New York. Give this one a watch if you're interested in real estate investing. βWatch on YouTubeβ Have a great day, Sieva P.S. - Are you hiring? Get started with top global talent from Somewhere (I'm a customer and investor) What did you think of today's newsletter? Rate this newsletter using the poll below: Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning. |
Sieva Kozinsky
Learn how to buy businesses in 5-minutes or less, once a week. Lessons & specific tactics on how invest your money and generate cash flow for your life.
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: Want to get your business in front of my audience? He combined 2 failing businesses. Here's what happened. How to do $400 million a year in revenue πMarket your business to Sieva's Business Business Academy audience We began testing with our first advertisers last year, and it turns out this community is incredibly engaged. With 70,000 operators, investors, and "acquisition curious" reading...
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: Want to get your business in front of my audience? He built a $63 billion playbook Copy this playbook for buying $2 billion in businesses πMarket your business to Sieva's Business Business Academy audience We began testing with our first advertisers last year, and it turns out this community is incredibly engaged. With 70,000 operators, investors, and "acquisition curious" reading this...
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: Want to get your business in front of my audience? 3 family-owned businesses that sold to PE He raised $2 billion to buy boring businesses πMarket your business to Sieva's Business Business Academy audience We began testing with our first advertisers last year, and it turns out this community is incredibly engaged. With 70,000 operators, investors, and "acquisition curious" reading this...