ARTS AND CRASH

In 2016, shares of cra s retailer Michaels were surging thanks to its bold plan to ght the likes of Etsy and Amazon:

“The web remains a no-man’s-land for Michaels. The company doesn’t believe selling cra supplies is well suited to e-commerce. A large part of Michaels’ clientele want to, say, feel a fabric before buying it, and a lot of its sales come through spontaneous purchases and browsing—the kind of discovery shopping keeping Barnes & Noble open. Even if Michaels wanted to compete with Amazon, it almost certainly couldn’t build something bigger or be er. Why go face-toface with a giant when you can dodge it? Still, some think Michaels can’t hide forever.” FORBES, JULY 26, 2016

Je Bezos soon came knocking. Michaels’ stock slid for years as cra ers went online. This April, private equity rm Apollo took the company private at a $3.3 billion valuation—$150 million below its 2014 IPO price.