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Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

#2 in Technology this week

Every company has a story.

Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.

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  • 217 episodes
  • monthly
  • Avg 1 hr 54 min
  • English

Episodes 217

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  • S1 · E36
    Apr 24, 2017 · 1 hr 3 min

    The LA Clippers

    In honor of start of NBA playoffs, Ben & David venture off the beaten path to explore one of Steve Ballmer’s most famous acquisitions, his 2014 purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise. Was this landmark purchase a steal or a turnover for the former Microsoft CEO? We speculate wildly! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: The Clippers’ founding in 1970 as the NBA expansion team the Buffalo Braves Early ownership changes and the move west to San Diego in 1981 Acquisition in 1981 by LA lawyer and real estate developer Donald Sterling for $12.5M Sterling's relocation of the Clippers to LA in 1984 against NBA rules Struggles over the next 25 years as the "worst franchise in professional sports” according to ESPN Turnaround beginning in early 2010s led by Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul The bombshell in April 2014, reported by TMZ, of a taped conversation between Sterling and his mistress where Sterling makes hugely offensive and racist comments, directed in particular toward former Lakers point guard Magic Johnson Fallout from the comments, resulting in a lifetime ban from NBA for Sterling, and a forced sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer for $2B Impact of the landmark sale price on NBA and other sports franchise valuations Clippers performance post-sale, and prospects for the future The opportunity for technology and business model innovation in the NBA, and professional sports in general Followups: Instagram Stories passes 200 million users per day (including correction on the definition of DAU) The Last Jedi trailer! Clarifying Starbucks’ same store sales performance post-IPO The Carve Out: Ben: Bill Gurley on This Week in Startups David: Pop, Race & the '60s podcast and Just Around Midnight by Jack Hamilton

  • S1 · E35
    Apr 11, 2017 · 1 hr 16 min

    Oculus

    Ben & David transcend the barriers of “real” reality, and dive into Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s geek-eutpoia vision of the future of gaming, social, and maybe even the entire internet: strapping goofy-looking goggles to your face. Is VR for real this time or are we living through another Virtual Boy moment? Tune in to find out! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Oculus’s origins in 2010 as a twinkle in the eye of the then-17 year old VR wunderkind, Palmer Luckey, who started by prototyping VR headsets in his parents’ garage in Southern California Palmer’s time interning at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, and chronicling of his own VR efforts in the Meant to be Seen 3D internet forums Legendary game developer John Carmack’s own interest in virtual reality, his intersection with Palmer on the MTBS3D forums, and how he acquired and popularized one of Palmer's first early prototypes of the Oculus Rift (which was literally held together with duct tape!) by demonstrating it onstage at E3 2012 How former Scaleform cofounders Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov teamed up with Palmer after E3 to create the company Oculus VR The newly-formed Oculus’s wildly successful August 2012 Kickstarter campaign, including video endorsements from both Carmack and Valve founder Gabe Newell Oculus’s subsequent venture capital fundraisings, and catching the attention of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Facebook’s acquisition of the company in March 2014 for $2.3B The Zenimax lawsuit filed against Oculus and Facebook following the acquisition Valve (home of the most incredible company handbook of all-time) and Gabe Newell’s subsequent pivot from supporting Oculus to launching their own competing VR efforts with the Vive Team changes at Oculus post-acquisition Followups: SNAP: still a public company Hot Takes: Intel’s $15B acquisition of Mobileye (with reference to Ben Thompson’s analysis of the deal and Smiling Curves) The Carve Out: Ben: Kara Swisher interviews the Pod Save America team at SXSW David: Adam Gopnik asks Are Liberals on the Wrong Side of History?

  • S1 · E34
    Apr 3, 2017 · 1 hr 10 min

    The Starbucks IPO with Dan Levitan

    Ben & David "pour over" the 1992 IPO of the legendary Seattle coffee company with the help of Dan Levitan, who served as lead investment banker on the IPO and who would later co-found the venture capital firm Maveron with Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: The original Starbucks’ founding as a coffee bean roaster, started by three disciples of the legendary coffee roaster Alfred Peet Howard Schultz’s introduction to Starbucks, his joining the team as director of marketing, and inspiration behind his “third place” coffee shop vision Howard’s departure from the original Starbucks, founding of Il Giornale, and subsequent of acquisition the Seattle Starbucks stores Starbucks’ incredible growth following the acquisition and expansion beyond Seattle The state of raising private capital in the 1980’s/90’s, and the decision to go public (link to the S-1) Howard’s ambitious goals for the roadshow and investor participation, and subsequent stock performance after the IPO The narrative and evolution of Starbucks as a technology company, or a consumer company that leverages technology very effectively The Carve Out: Ben: Dan Primack’s new daily newsletter, Pro Rata David: The Wizard and the Bruiser podcast Dan: The Man in the Glass

  • S1 · E33
    Mar 13, 2017 · 1 hr 26 min

    Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!)

    Episode 33: Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!) Ben & David dive deep into the early days of internet search, with the help of the best in the internet history business: Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast! We are huge fans of IHP at Acquired, so this was a real treat to collaborate with Brian and the great work he does over there. In this episode we cover the story of how a small incubator in Southern California spawned perhaps the greatest tech business model of all-time, Yahoo!’s fumbling of that golden opportunity, and Google’s recovery of that fumble to cross into the end zone of tech history behind the biggest moat ever constructed on the internet. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Overture’s origins as part of the Idealab incubator run by famed early internet entrepreneur Bill Gross Invention of the paid search business model… initially by returning ADS ONLY in response to search queries The eventual marrying of Overture’s paid search (ads) with organic search results via syndication on other properties like Yahoo! Revenue from Overture’s ad partnership saving Yahoo!’s business after the internet bubble burst Yahoo!’s eventual acquisition of Overture for $1.4B in 2003 But… the really interesting story here: Overture’s 'inspiration' of Google’s business model and the creation of "the greatest advertising machine in the history of the world" The original (pre-Overture) Google business model: selling a box! Google’s differentiation vs Overture: focusing on the long tail, ad quality scores, and an advertiser-friendly auction structure Google’s first major search syndication victory over Overture: AOL Yahoo!’s failed attempt to buy Google for $3B in 2002, leading it to settle for acquiring Overture instead the following year “Project Panama” at Yahoo!, and its impact on the tech and internet history Overture's (and later Yahoo!’s) lawsuit against Google for stealing the paid search business model— "the O.G. version of Snapchat and Instagram” Paul Graham’s take on "What Happened to Yahoo?” Perhaps the most important technology to come out of this whole episode: Hadoop The power of incentive alignment in marketplaces— and creating the widest and deepest moats on the internet The Carve Out: Ben: The famous University of Washington's “Love Lab” Dr. John Gottman: “The Secret to Love is Just Kindness” David: Berlin Brian: The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s

  • S1 · E32
    Mar 4, 2017 · 1 hr 22 min

    The Snap Inc. IPO

    Snap! Acquired is live on the scene reporting from the "Super Bowl" of 2017 tech events: Snap Inc's hugely anticipated (and just plain huge) IPO. What does the future hold for this plucky “camera company”? Will Snap's IPO endure as tech's most important picture-frame since the 2012 debut of Facebook, or is it destined to fade as just another snapshot? We debate! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Reference to our previous Acquired episode on Snap covering Facebook’s failed attempt to acquire the company in 2013, which goes deep on Snap’s origins and early history Snap’s busy years since: launching Discover, Lenses, Geofilters, new Chat, Memories, an ads API, acquiring Bitmoji, and, of course, debuting Spectacles The incredible document that is Snap's S-1 filing (read starting from the “BUSINESS” section on p.93) Snap Inc’s “unique” voting structure Evan Spiegel’s “CEO Award” bonus for successfully completing an IPO: an extra 3.0% of the company worth more than $600M Snap’s IPO pricing, first day of trading “pop”, and momentum carried into day two Introducing a new show section (for IPOs): Narratives! Snap is a “camera company" Snap's opportunity is winning television ad dollars Snap is a cult of the “product genius” Snap has a growth problem… and its name is Instagram (Stories) Snap has a cost problem: the (first?) gross margin negative IPO Wall Street to Evan: “we trust you… for now" Chris Sacca’s biggest email fail of 2012 …And of course all the classics from the Acquired canon: waves, moats, flywheels, network effects, starting small and more! The Carve Out: Ben: The Bill Simmons Podcast with Ben Thompson David: The Art of War, also Evan Spiegel’s Carve Out for 2013 :)

  • S1 · E31
    Mar 1, 2017 · 1 hr 8 min

    The Uber - Didi Chuxing Merger with Brad Stone, author of The Upstarts & The Everything Store

    Topics covered include: The global surge in 2012 of entrepreneurs starting ridesharing companies, nowhere moreso than China Didi CEO Cheng Wei and investor Wang Gang’s backgrounds at Alibaba, first entrepreneurial effort in Momo, and Momo’s pivot to Didi Dache The culling of the ridesharing herd in China down to Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache through brutal competition and involvement of the “big three” Chinese internet companies Rise of the Chinese messaging apps and associated mobile payments, and their impact on ridesharing The 2015 merger between Didi and Kuaidi, brokered in part by Russian VC Yuri Milner Uber’s decision to enter the Chinese market, and early success with investment and support from Baidu The first meeting between Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Cheng Wei in 2015—which does not go well Subsequent “scorched earth” competition between Didi and Uber throughout 2015-16 Negotiating an armistice: Uber’s agreement to sell its Chinese operations to Didi in late 2016 End of the war, or just the beginning? January 2017: Didi invests $100M in Brazilian Uber competitor 99 Sustainable growth, and building moats versus scorching earth Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 Followups: Stay tuned for real-time coverage of the Snap IPO coming here on Acquired! The Carve Out: Ben: Taming the Mammoth on Wait But Why David: Conversations with Tyler Podcast by Tyler Cowen, co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog Brad: Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens)’s new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

  • S1 · E30
    Jan 24, 2017 · 1 hr 8 min

    P.A. Semi + AuthenTec

    Topics covered include: P.A. Semi’s original moniker ("Palo Alto Semiconductor”) and its celebrity founder (in the semiconductor world) Dan Dobberpuhl History of the back and forth tradeoffs between Intel’s powerful x86 chips and low power alternatives like ARM processors Dobberpuhl’s technology breakthroughs throughout his career that enabled true low-power + high-performance chips The initial target markets for P.A. Semi’s chips (surprise: NOT mobile phones) P.A. Semi’s first foray into a potential deal with Apple, dashed by Cupertino’s surprise switch to Intel processors in 2005 The rise of mobile finally creating the huge market need for low-power / high-performance, Apple’s acquisition of P.A., and launch of the first Apple-designed chip, the “A4”, with the original iPad in 2010 Geekbench: the single-core performance of Apple’s latest generation of smartphone processors (A10 Fusion) has basically caught up with Intel’s laptop CPUs AuthenTec’s beginnings in the late 90’s as a spinoff from the defense contractor Harris Corporation (named by Wired Magazine as the #2 threat to internet privacy in the US), based in Melbourne, Florida Early versions of the technology that became TouchID, the sensors for which were many times larger than today’s iPhones themselves! AuthenTec “not very Apple-like” website on Archive.org (and screenshot) AuthenTec’s deal that almost was to put their technology and sensors into Samsung’s flagship phones Apple’s acquisition of AuthenTec for $356 million in July 2012, and the rapid introduction of TouchID in the iPhone 5S one year later in September 2013 Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 Followups: Merging of Alaska & Virgin America loyalty programs (woo!) Walmart announces major reorg following the Jet acquisition Snap Inc. IPO drama is mounting! (we can’t wait to cover this one) The Carve Out: Ben: Rands in Repose: The Situation David: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

  • S1 · E29
    Jan 11, 2017 · 1 hr 12 min

    Special: 2016 Review and 2017 Predictions

    Ben & David wrap up 2016 with a review of the top tech themes we discussed on the show this year, and look forward to which themes we think will be relevant in the coming year. Can our hosts predict the future? Tune-in in 2018 to find out! Note: we apologize for the less-than-amazing audio quality on this one. We’re still working on tuning our remote recording setup! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Our top tech themes of 2016, including the first annual Acquired "Theme of the Year”: Aggregation Theory (surprise, surprise) Themes we think will be most relevant as we head into 2017 Extended Carve Outs! The Carve Out(s): Books: Ben: On Writing Well David: The Creative Habit and the Asimov Robot/Empire/Foundation series Article: Ben: Wait But Why: Religion for the Nonreligious David: The New York Times: The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S. Podcasts: Both: The Ezra Klein Show Music: Ben: Justin Bieber David: Stevie Nicks TV/Movies: Ben: Westworld David: Rouge One Apps: Ben: ReachNow David: Amazon Music

  • S1 · E28
    Dec 31, 2016 · 1 hr 6 min

    The Amazon IPO with original Amazon Board Member Tom Alberg

    Ben & David welcome very special guest Tom Alberg, board member and first lead investor in Amazon.com, to cover the IPO of "earth’s most customer-centric company". From longterm thinking to flywheels to riding big waves, this episode is chock full of lessons and stories from the journey of building one of tech’s most iconic franchises. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Tom’s “prolific” bio from the Amazon S-1 Jeff Bezos’s journey from a Vice President at the New York hedge fund D. E. Shaw to founding Amazon in a Bellevue, WA garage in the summer of 1994 Jeff’s longterm thinking as evident in the early days of Amazon, and his approach that "failure is ok, but not trying things is not ok” Raising the seed money for Amazon before product launch, how Tom met Jeff and decided to invest despite the “high” valuation Tom's (and Jeff’s) focus on the power of targeting large and growing markets Amazon’s actual overnight success after launching the website: according to Tom at the time, "By the second or third week… It was clear there was a trend here.” How Amazon’s venture round, led by John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, came together in the spring of 1996 Amazon’s torrid growth through 1996, Jeff’s mantra of “get big fast” to win the land grab of online book selling, and the board’s decision to prepare for a public offering in the spring of 1997 How Frank Quattrone and Bill Gurley, then of Deutsche Bank, won the lead position for the Amazon IPO, beating out more storied firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Development of the flywheel concept within Amazon, as an outgrowth of maniacal focus on creating superior customer experience Amazon's public offering on May 15, 1997 at $18 per share (effectively $1.50 relative to today’s stock price after splits), raising $54M at a market capitalization of $438M — and subsequently trading down during the first few months following the IPO Amazon and Jeff’s management of investor perceptions of the company, and ability to sell the longterm vision over short term profits — “you get the investors you ask for” The creation of the first annual letter to Amazon shareholders included in the company’s 1997 annual report (and republished every year since), and then-CFO Joy Covey’s role and contributions to it Raising convertible debt just before the peak of the dotcom bubble and subsequent ability to survive the burst, and the impact of the downturn on Amazon culture The Carve Out: Ben: the band The Album Leaf David: Cormac McCarthy (author of All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, etc)’s contribution to W. Brian Arthur’s landmark paper about the economics of the internet, “Increasing Returns and the New World of Business” Tom: Michael Lewis’s latest book The Undoing Project, chronicling the Nobel Prize winning partnership between Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky in developing the field of behavioral economics

  • S1 · E27
    Dec 16, 2016 · 1 hr 10 min

    Special: A Conversation with Microsoft's Head of Strategic Investments Brian Schultz

    Topics covered include: Brian’s history working across “both sides of the aisle” as both a startup founder and corporate development leader at a big company, how perspective from each informs the other, and the importance of learning “customer empathy” How Microsoft approaches M&A from an organizational perspective, and the importance of fit with the company’s product roadmap How Brian approaches strategic investments at Microsoft, and the evolution over time of the Microsoft (and large technology companies as a whole) perspective on investing in other companies Balancing the tension between partnering and investing, and what criteria Brian thinks about when evaluating companies Microsoft’s investment in Facebook in 2007 (at a then-crazy-seeming $15B valuation), and more recently Foursquare, Mesosphere, CloudFlare and others The current state of the tech M&A landscape, and the emergence of private equity as tech company acquirers Potentially changing corporate and foreign tax structures and how they impact acquirers’ thinking around deals (or not!) How Microsoft tracks and evaluates success of acquisitions over time, and lessons learned from successes and failures The increasing number of operating companies (technology and otherwise) looking to invest in startups, and how that landscape has evolved over time Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 Followups: Snap Inc.’s rumored IPO filing — and bonus discussion of how VC’s and other investors think about “exiting” their investments in companies that have gone public Hot Takes: Amazon Go! The Carve Out: Ben: OK Go - The One Moment David: UC Berkeley Oral History with Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine Brian: Om Malik’s recent piece in the New Yorker: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

  • S1 · E26
    Dec 5, 2016 · 1 hr 18 min

    Marvel

    Topics covered include: Marvel’s corporate origins as "Timely Publications”, created in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman in NYC, with the publication of Marvel Comics #1 Creation of enduring characters such as Captain America, the Fantastic 4, Spider Man, The X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and more Adoption in 1961 of the "Marvel Comics” brand, and writer-editor Stan Lee’s transition of the company towards focusing on edgier characters and stories targeted at older audiences Marvel’s first sale in 1968 to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation (later Cadence Industries) The company’s “turbulent” corporate history through the 1980’s and associated mergers, acquisitions and lawsuits Marvel’s reinvention as a film-focused media company in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s with the launch of Marvel Studios Disney’s ultimate acquisition of the company for $4.2 billion in August 2009, during the depth of the great recession Marvel's—and in particular Marvel Studios’—performance since the acquisition Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 Followups: People like Spectacles! Hot Takes: Shoutout to Hightower & VTS merging The Carve Out: Ben: Westworld David: Overdrive More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

  • S1 · E25
    Nov 11, 2016 · 1 hr 21 min

    The Facebook IPO

    Hey Acquired listeners. A note about this show: we recorded this episode the night before the 2016 Election Day in the US. At the time, the biggest change we saw coming was adding a new type of content to Acquired in analyzing IPO’s, which we introduce in this episode. Two days later, we woke up to a very different world than the one we were expecting. Reflecting on what’s happened, and the past few months of our show, we wanted to say two things: First, we want to apologize for our cavalier attitude toward this election cycle, and our glossing over the clearly very real problems and deep divide in America that it represented. In the Skype episode, David pretty glibly compared the AT&T - Time Warner merger to "Make America Great Again", arguing that any reactionary force is “on the wrong side of history” and cannot be relevant in a changing world. That was wrong, the sentiment behind it was wrong, and it was insensitive to the very real pain a lot of people are feeling out there on both sides. Second, looking back on this particular episode about the Facebook IPO, we think it actually might present a relevant parable for our country right now and--we hope--some important lessons for the technology industry going forward. For all the wonderful aspects of the tech industry that we celebrate on this show, there is no doubt that it also bears a great deal of responsibility for the current divide in America, and especially in its contribution to wealth inequality. Likewise, for all the wonderful aspects to the Facebook IPO story, as told in this episode, there is a very dark side as well: Facebook shareholders, investment banks and institutional investors raked in billions of dollars at the expense of individual retail investors who lost their shirts. At the same time, Facebook’s perseverance through their “broken IPO", and their determination in overcoming with incredible speed the massive, existential challenge to their business model posed by mobile, is something we think *can be* an inspiration to us all on how to move forward even when that seems hard. We hope you’ll listen to this episode with that in mind and think about how you, we, and the technology industry as a whole can do better in serving everyone in this country and in the world. Thanks for being on this journey with us. We’re sorry for our shortcomings, and we’re going to keep working hard to do better. -Ben & David Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Introducing a new content vertical for Acquired: analyzing IPO’s! Facebook turning down early acquisition offers, including including the famous $1B overture from Yahoo in 2006 The Wikipedia entry on the Facebook IPO referencing it as a “cultural touchstone” Trading of pre-IPO Facebook stock on SecondMarket and SharesPost The infamous 2011 Facebook - Goldman Sachs deal attempting to circumvent then-active SEC regulations on number of permissible shareholders in a private company, and Goldman’s eventual loss of “lead left” status to Morgan Stanley for the ultimate Facebook IPO Facebook’s S-1 filing on February 1, 2012 The company’s "small problem" at the time (read: gaping chest wound) with mobile Acquiring Instagram for $1B while on file to go public in April 2012 Facebook’s $16B IPO finally taking place on Friday May 18, 2012, priced at $38 per share giving FB an initial market cap of $104B NASDAQ’s “technical glitch” (read: egregious f*&# up) preventing the stock from trading when it supposed to and resulting in $500M of investor losses Facebook’s stock tanking following a flat first day of trading, losing 25% of its value during the first month and over 50% 4 months later, leading some to label it “The Biggest IPO Flop Ever" Later revelations that Facebook had unprecedentedly lowered revenue guidance during its IPO roadshow due to continuing challenges with mobile, resulting in an information asymmetry between its underwriting investment banks and their institutional investor clients versus the investing public at large How, from the ashes of its “broken IPO”, Facebook amazingly rose to fix its mobile problem at lighting speed, going from mobile comprising zero percent of ad revenue to 23% in one quarter, and over 50% one year later Zuckerberg's belief that the difficult IPO process and "terrible first year” as a public company "made our company a lot stronger”… and silicon valley’s bizarre, antithetical and counter-productive take away to “stay private longer” Followups: The scoop on Microsoft’s use of foreign cash to buy Skype, thanks to longtime listener and friend Nick Seguin Hot Takes: Twitter shutting down (or selling?) Vine The Carve Out: Ben: Amazon employee #1 Shel Kaphan on the great Internet History Podcast David: Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization by Parag Khanna

  • S1 · E24
    Nov 2, 2016 · 1 hr 18 min

    Skype

    An acquisition so wild and crazy, they had to do it again. And again. Ben & David cover tech’s perhaps most-traded asset, Skype (which also happens to be a fantastic business). How do we even know which deal to grade? Tune in to find out… Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Community spotlight: Slack community member Swyx’s financial data research startup Sentieo! Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis’s meeting in the 1990’s at Swedish telecom company Tele2 Zennström & Friis’s introduction to talented Estonian developers Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu as part of Tele2’s efforts to jump into the dot com “portal mania” Skype’s origins in the technology powering Zennström, Friis and the Estonians’ first startup endeavor together: the peer-to-peer file sharing platform Kazaa The “complicated” legal, technological and ownership situation for Kazaa and Skype Skype’s “unique” corporate culture, including a swimming pool in the board room and shots for initiating new employees The first Skype acquisition: eBay’s 2005 deal to acquire the company for $2.6B, just two years after launch Culture clash between eBay and Skype management, and further legal drama regarding Skype technology ownership post-acquisition The second Skype acquisition: eBay’s 2009 decision to spin the company out to a private investor consortium including Silver Lake and the newly-formed Andreessen Horowitz The third (and final?) Skype acquisition: Microsoft’s $8.5B purchase of the company in 2011 Skype as a “crossover” product with viable market opportunities both in consumer and enterprise Bill Gurley’s “Keys to the 10X Revenue Club” and the power of Skype’s organic customer acquisition model Followups: The Google iPhone… err, Pixel! Hot Takes: AT&T’s $85B mega-acquisition of Time Warner… making America great again, or rebuilding the T-1000? The New York Times acquiring The Wirecutter The Carve Out: Ben: Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny David: SOMA the Musical starring our very own Acquired listener, the brilliant and talented Jake Saper!

  • S1 · E23
    Oct 23, 2016 · 1 hr 2 min

    NeXT (Live show at the GeekWire Summit)

    Ben & David broadcast live from the 2016 GeekWire Summit covering one of the all-time greats, Apple’s 1996 acquisition of NeXT. This episode has it all: the Steve Jobs hero story, Apple, I.M. Pei, Ross Perot, Aaron Sorkin, Nobel Laureates and… Gil Amelio? Does NeXT rank atop the best acquisitions ever? Our own heroes cast their votes. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: 1980’s era Apple, entering the age of the “workstation”, with John Sculley as CEO and Steve Jobs leading the newly formed SuperMicro division working on building the “BigMac" Jobs’ exile to "Siberia”, and chance meeting with Nobel Laureate Paul Berg that sowed the seeds of NeXT Jobs’ resignation from Apple on September 13, 1985 to start NeXT, taking with him SuperMicro division employees Joanna Hoffman, Bud Tribble, George Crow, Rich Page, Susan Barnes, Susan Kare, and Dan'l Lewin Apple’s subsequent lawsuit against Jobs and, Steve’s classic quote in response: "It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans." NeXT’s “anti lean startup” approach, spending $100k on brand identity and moving into I.M. Pei designed offices Ross Perot’s $20M investment in NeXT The first NeXT computer (fun unboxing video) product launch, dubbed "The NeXT Introduction” on October 12, 1988 (one of the three scenes in the Aaron Sorkin Steve Jobs movie) The NeXTSTEP operating system as the first “modern” OS (including Object-oriented programming), and like the Mac equally descended from Xerox PARC Major technologies developed on NeXT computers, including the first web browser and Doom NeXT’s exit from the hardware business and transition to a software-only model with OPENSTEP Apple’s failed internal projects to develop a modern OS, culminating in the acquisition of NeXT in December 1996 Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, public lack of faith in the then-current board and management, and maneuvering to return to the CEO role The transformation of NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP into OS X, and ultimately iOS, watchOS, tvOS, etc. The Carve Out: Ben: Stewart Butterfield (Cofounder/CEO of Slack) on the The Ezra Klein Show David: DJI and the Rise of the Robomasters

  • S1 · E22
    Oct 14, 2016 · 1 hr 11 min

    Zillow + Trulia (with Zillow Group CFO Kathleen Philips)

    CFO of Zillow Group Kathleen Philips joins Ben and David to cover the show’s first true “merger” versus “acquisition" (only took 22 episodes!), Zillow’s 2015 combination with Trulia to form Zillow Group. Note: our audio glitches unfortunately continued on this episode, and quality is rough. We recommend listening on speakers vs headphones if you’re able. We apologize and will be back to normal quality next time! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Zillow and Trulia’s beginnings during the “Web 2.0” era in the mid-2000’s Zillow, Trulia and other online players’ place within the massive US real estate market The lengthy “dance" between Zillow and Trulia and earlier aborted merger talks between the two The difficulty of "true mergers” among private companies and why the path is easier for public companies Public company shareholders’ influence and role in M&A transactions Details of the blazingly fast negotiations (27 days start to finish!) per disclosures in the SEC filings (scroll down to "Background of the Mergers”) Structuring the deal and incentivizing Trulia and Zillow mangers to stay and continue growing as separate brands Trulia cofounder Sami Inkinen’s whereabouts during the merger negotiations The experience going through a lengthy FTC review of the merger, and defining what the relevant “market” is the FTC should be considering Introducing our new acquisition category: a “timeline acquisition” ;) (h/t Kathleen) Zillow Group’s overall approach to acquisitions, folding into its broader HR strategy Zillow founder Rich Barton’s startup thesis of searching for "What piece of marketplace information do people crave and don’t have?" Followups: Snap Inc. Spectacles! Hot Takes: Twitter-Disney rumors, according to “people familiar with matter”! AppLovin’s journey from bootstrapped startup to $1.4B exit The Carve Out: Ben: The Marvel Symphonic Universe David: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Kathleen: The Struts

  • S1 · E21
    Sep 27, 2016 · 1 hr 18 min

    Inside the M&A Press with Bloomberg's Alex Sherman

    Ben and David go inside the M&A press with Bloomberg’s technology M&A reporter and host of the Deal of the Week Podcast, Alex Sherman. If you’ve ever wondered how stories about big deals get broken or what “according to people familiar with the matter” really means, tune in for the behind-the-scenes scoop! Note: A technical glitch with our recording setup created occasional short silences between Alex’s comments and Ben & David’s. It shouldn’t impact listenability, but we apologize for the awkward pauses! Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Bloomberg’s own fascinating “history & facts” and origins following the acquisition of storied Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers Bloomberg’s core as a highly profitable technology business (selling terminals to Wall Street firms), with a large media empire built on top of it The tradable value of breaking M&A news & information to Bloomberg’s terminal customers, and competing on speed How “sources" work — and industry standard that sources be directly within the companies involved in a deal The coded language of M&A reporting and gleaning where information is coming from based on a story’s structure and phrasing The lifecycle of a story—steps from sourcing to writing to release, and reasons (or lack thereof) for why stories run when they do Internal & external PR resources companies use for M&A How Alex prioritizes his time researching and creating stories, and who he’s meeting with to hear about what deals are in the works The difference between ‘news' and ‘analysis', and why news dominates the majority of stories versus deeper analysis Media and social media business models, their evolution in the messenger world, and speculation on Twitter’s future How entrepreneurs can think about interacting with the press and building relationships with the right reporters for their stage and space Apple’s ‘unique’ approach to press relations Followups: Instagram announces 500k+ active advertisers, up from 200k in February 2016 Amazon stock price surpasses $800/share Hot Takes: Ford acquires Chariot The Yahoo! data breach and potential impact on their acquisition by Verizon The Carve Out: Ben: Phil of Drones’ Burning Man 2016 recap video David: Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths Alex: Clinton’s Samantha Bee Problem, by Ross Douthat in the NYT Opinion Pages

  • S1 · E20
    Sep 16, 2016 · 1 hr 14 min

    Android

    Ben & David examine Google’s 2005 purchase of Android for a rumored $50M, undeniably one of the best technology acquisitions of all time. But will it top the list of these tough graders? Tune in to find out. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Welcome new listeners! We quickly review the show format for newbies. Community spotlight: Patagonia on a Budget from community member Matt Morgante (@mattm on Slack) Andy Rubin’s career trajectory and what made him “born to start Android" The undeniable “cool factor” of the Danger Sidekick in the early/mid-2000’s, including fans such as Larry Page, Sergey Brin and… Turtle from Entourage Android’s original ambition to build an operating system for… digital cameras WebTV founder Steve Perlman is pretty much the best friend ever Google’s own perspective on Android as their “best deal ever" The Android team’s reaction to Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone in January 2007, and redesigning the initial launch hardware Announcing Android and—equally importantly—the Open Handset Alliance (“OHA”) The much-talked-about "mobile holy wars", between Android’s “open” platform and Apple’s “closed” platform The less-talked-about US carrier wars with the iPhone + AT&T in one camp, and everyone else in the Google / OHA camp (including “Droid Does”) A quirk of history: HTC at one point acquires a majority share in Beats, resulting a short-lived period of Beats-branded Android phones (still available on Amazon!) The real battleground for Google in the mobile platform wars: the economics of “default search” (briefly known thanks to the Oracle/Java lawsuit against Google) Google’s detour into smartphone hardware with the acquisition (and subsequent divestiture) of Motorola The “fork-ability” of Android via the Android Open Source Project (versus “Google Android”), and the rise of Xiaomi, Cyanogen, Kindle Fire and other platforms The ecosystem economics of the Android business for Google “Defensive” versus “offensive” acquisitions, and protecting Google’s core search business Could (or would) Google have built an Android-like platform without acquiring Android the company (or having Andy Rubin)? Framing the technology world’s shift to mobile within (surprise) Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory The current “moving up the stack” of the competitive playing field as the mobile landscape matures Grading: Android versus Instagram? Followups: Waze launches Carpool in the Bay Area. Much consternation ensues on the Uber board. Hot Takes: The iPhone 7 (and AirPods) announcement The Carve Out: Ben: Business Adventures by John Brooks, Bill Gates’ favorite business book David: Ezra Edelman's fantastic 5-part ESPN documentary on O.J. Simpson, O.J.: Made in America None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!

  • S1 · E19
    Aug 29, 2016 · 1 hr 5 min

    Jet

    Ben & David break down Jet.com’s meteoric rise, culminating in Walmart’s blockbuster $3B+ acquisition of the company just two years after its founding. Will we look back on this deal as an ‘Instagram-like’ bargain or a ‘Pets.com'-sized blunder? And most importantly, can *anyone* compete with Amazon going forward? We speculate wildly. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: Community spotlight: Nowdue, a super fast invoicing platform for teams on Slack. Invoice like it’s the future! This looks very cool. Jet’s deep origins in Founder & CEO Marc Lore’s first two companies, The Pit and Quidsi (aka, diapers.com) Lore’s chance run-in with Jeff Bezos at a school picnic in Seattle in the early 2000’s Amazon's dramatic acquisition of Quidsi in 2010, including Bezos’ admonition to Amazon corp dev to keep Quidsi from being bought by Walmart under any circumstances (covered well in The Everything Store) Lore’s less-than-favorable opinion of Amazon's culture Lore's vision of Jet as an ‘online Costco’ that can directly with Amazon on price by selling goods to a “huge middle-class of people" at effectively zero margin, and make profit on membership fees Jet’s huge, pre-launch fundraising rounds, and subsequent massively promoted public launch in July 2015 Jet’s pivot in October 2015 to drop the membership model (their only profit engine), and subsequent massive growth (but also accompanying massive losses) 'Admitting defeat” to Amazon in July 2016? Immediately followed by the blockbuster $3B+ Walmart acquisition announcement Is e-commerce really a winner-take-all business and will Amazon just take over the world? Featuring liberal citations (again) of Ben Thompson's Aggregation Theory and the importance of customer experience. Is there any path for Walmart & Jet to compete effectively with Amazon? Is Marc Lore Walmart’s only hope? Fantastic interview with Tim Cook discussing (among other things) the massive amount of growth still left in the internet Followups: Lucasfilm: Star Wars Rouge One trailer drops! Featuring a strong female protagonist! New section: Hot Takes! (thank you @cteitzel on Slack for the idea) Verizon/AOL acquires Yahoo! Lyft reportedly turns down acquisition offer from GM Microsoft acquires Beam Randstad acquires Monster.com The Carve Out: Ben: Michael Mauboussin’s Talk at Google and Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors after thirty years of honing his craft David: Strava, the fantastic social fitness-tracking app None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!

  • S1 · E18
    Aug 22, 2016 · 1 hr 4 min

    Special: An Acquirer’s View into M&A with Taylor Barada, head of Corp Dev at Adobe

    Ben & David are joined by special guest Taylor Barada, VP and Head of Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships at Adobe, to discuss how large tech acquirers approach buying companies. This episode is full of great insights for startups & entrepreneurs who might find themselves navigating the M&A process, as well as anyone curious about the craft of dealmaking and the strategic approach of large acquirers. Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Topics covered include: How conversations begin between startups and acquirers The importance of building a relationship with acquirers over time and "investing in lines, not dots” (just like raising VC) The often under-appreciated role of culture fit between acquirers and acquisition targets How entrepreneurs should evaluate acquirers throughout the M&A process Two examples of successful acquisitions Taylor completed at Yahoo in Citizen Sports and IntoNow The M&A process at large technology acquirers, from initial conversations to LOI, due diligence and the definitive merger agreement The relative roles of Corp Dev, business/product owners and executive sponsors in the M&A process Common mistakes startups (and VC’s) often make in the M&A process Different “categories” of M&A that acquirers think about, and the relative risks & opportunities of “core" acquisitions vs transformative new businesses What percentage of deals Adobe looks at actually happen, and the importance of being willing to say no M&A as a tool for strategy, and the different M&A cultures & approaches at different companies Tech themes Taylor and Adobe think about as part of their M&A strategy Evaluating the longterm success of deals and the importance of the M&A integration function Followups: Ben & David’s quick take on Instagram Stories! The Carve Out: Ben: Why the Concorde failed by Vox David: Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time Taylor: Mindset by Carol Dweck, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!

  • S1 · E17
    Aug 3, 2016 · 1 hr

    Waze

    Topics covered include: Community Showcase: the Nexcast podcasting platform from listener Brian Sanders, along with their podcast chronicling the team’s journey building the company Waze’s origin in cofounder & CTO Ehud Shabtai’s desire to hack his portable GPS navigation unit Waze CEO Noam Bardin’s retrospective blog post on the Waze journey Waze’s Palo Alto office and the bizarre Silicon Valley phenomenon of tech companies being located in retail storefronts Apple’s ill-fated launch of Apple Maps as part of iOS 6 at WWDC 2012, Apple’s subsequent apology letter, and Scott Forstall’s ultimate ouster from the company The climax of the mobile platform wars… which it turns out Apple and Google both won Apple, Facebook, and Google all vying to acquire Waze throughout 2013 Google’s renewed design ethos under Larry Page Ben and David spontaneously agree (surprise) to create on a new category of acquisition for the show The increasing strategic value of data and data assets as technology enters the age of machine learning The coming mega trend of autonomous vehicles, and the role Israeli startups are playing in it (including the globalization of startups & innovation) The disruptive power of network and data-based business models Emergence of native as *the* definitive advertising medium on mobile, including ability to close the advertising loop via location-based products and services Sponsors: Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26 Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26 More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC The Carve Out: Ben: Weezer’s “Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori” on Song Exploder David: Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” TED Talk Followups: None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!

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