Acquired

Sun, 17 Nov 2024

IKEA may be the most singular company we’ve ever studied on Acquired. They’re a globally scaled,...

Sun, 27 Oct 2024

Meta is a company everyone knows (literally, everyone). But, somehow, it’s also a company that few...

Sun, 29 Sep 2024

Here it is: the complete video of the most unbelievable night of Acquired’s nine-year life… our ...

Tue, 17 Sep 2024

Mark is the iconic founder CEO of our time. At Chase Center on September 10, 2024, he did an unprece...

Thu, 08 Aug 2024

Summer greetings from Acquired! Two items for this “mini-episode”:Tickets are now available for ...

Sun, 21 Jul 2024

In 1999, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world. And in 2019, Microsoft became the ...

Mon, 03 Jun 2024

Starbucks. You’d be hard pressed to name any brand that’s more ubiquitous in the world today. Wi...

Sun, 21 Apr 2024

Microsoft. After nearly a decade of Acquired episodes, we are finally ready to tackle the most valua...

Sun, 17 Mar 2024

Renaissance Technologies is the best performing investment firm of all time. And yet no one at RenTe...

Mon, 19 Feb 2024

In luxury, there’s Hermès… and there’s everyone else. Stewarded by one French family over six...

Sun, 21 Jan 2024

Last year Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, overtook LVMH t...

Sun, 17 Dec 2023

Ben has some big news. Actually, double big news! On what has become a holiday tradition here at Acq...

Sun, 26 Nov 2023

To paraphrase Visa founder Dee Hock, how many of you know Visa? Great, all of you. Now, how many of ...

Sun, 29 Oct 2023

We sit down with the legendary Charlie Munger in the only dedicated longform podcast interview that ...

Sun, 15 Oct 2023

We finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts...

Tue, 05 Sep 2023

It’s a(nother) new era for Nvidia.We thought we’d closed the Acquired book on Nvidia back in Apr...

Sun, 20 Aug 2023

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch)...

Mon, 24 Jul 2023

Nike — it’s perhaps the most iconic and most prolific brand of the modern era. On any given day,...

Mon, 26 Jun 2023

Nobody’s perfect — including Porsche. Despite that phrase appearing in their famous 1983 magazin...

Mon, 12 Jun 2023

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped by the Acquired studio for an Eats delivery, so we broke out the ...

Mon, 29 May 2023

Today we bring you two absolutely incredible stories. The first is Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Work...

Wed, 17 May 2023

We sit down with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek live in Stockholm at Spotify’s amazing HQ studio (check out...

Tue, 25 Apr 2023

We sit down Benchmark’s legendary gaming investors Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins (now also of the ...

Mon, 17 Apr 2023

Sega and the Genesis was THE underdog story of the early 90’s. In a single console generation, Seg...

Tue, 11 Apr 2023

In the 1980’s Nintendo was on top of the world, with the NES achieving over 90% market share of ho...

Mon, 03 Apr 2023

7 Powers author Hamilton Helmer and his Strategy Capital colleague Chenyi Shi join us again to discu...

Wed, 29 Mar 2023

ACQ Sessions returns with David Senra of the Founders Podcast. David is one of our very favorite peo...

Wed, 15 Mar 2023

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn...

Tue, 21 Feb 2023

We tell the full history of LVMH, and how Bernard Arnault turned a $15m investment in a bankrupt Fre...

Wed, 25 Jan 2023

The NFL — it’s almost synonymous with America today. And its history is a fascinating lens to ex...

Sun, 18 Dec 2022

Cozy up to the fire and join Acquired as we do our annual strategic review of the show and our busin...

Mon, 05 Dec 2022

Ben Thompson joins Acquired to discuss the business of Stratechery itself and celebrate 10 years (!)...

Mon, 28 Nov 2022

The FTX fraud has dominated headlines now for weeks, during which we’ve debated if and how Acquire...

Mon, 14 Nov 2022

Qualcomm, or “Quality Communications” — despite being one of the largest technology companies ...

Mon, 17 Oct 2022

We sit down with all five current Benchmark GPs for one of their legendary weekly dinners, during wh...

Tue, 04 Oct 2022

We kick off ACQ Sessions with the-behind-the-scenes story of All-in, from the world’s greatest mod...

Tue, 27 Sep 2022

Benchmark Capital. We tell the tale of the legendary equal partnership that accomplished something n...

Mon, 05 Sep 2022

So, how DID an online book retailer end up building the infrastructure layer that powers the entire ...

Mon, 29 Aug 2022

We sit down with legendary investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital and his son Andrew who, while le...

Tue, 16 Aug 2022

Amazon. No company has impacted the internet — and all of modern life — more than this one. We’...

Mon, 01 Aug 2022

This episode is a first for Acquired: we’re joined by a sitting US Congressman (from Ben’s home ...

Mon, 18 Jul 2022

We kick off Season 11 with the incredible story of the retail “granddaddy of them all” Walmart, ...

Sun, 19 Jun 2022

When Patrick O'Shaughnessy and Brent Beshore asked us to give a talk at their incredible Capital Cam...

Sun, 05 Jun 2022

We sit down with a16z General Partner Katherine Boyle to discuss investing in “American Dynamism”...

Thu, 19 May 2022

We sit down with the CEO founders of two of the most capital efficient success stories of all time —...

Sun, 15 May 2022

For the final act of the Arena Show, we’re joined by Brooks CEO Jim Weber to tell the amazing stor...

Thu, 12 May 2022

We did an Arena Show!! This evening was so big and so special, we had to split it into two episodes ...

Wed, 20 Apr 2022

By 2012, NVIDIA was on a decade-long road to nowhere. Or so most rational observers of the company t...

Tue, 05 Apr 2022

We sit down once again with one of the world’s very best strategy thinkers, 7 Powers author Hamilt...

Sun, 27 Mar 2022

He wears signature leather jackets. He can bench press more than you. He makes cars that drive thems...

Mon, 14 Mar 2022

We hear a lot these days about hedge funds becoming venture firms, and venture firms becoming hedge ...

Mon, 07 Mar 2022

Born in the unlikeliest of places — the terrible, wasteland-like aftermath of post WWII Japan — ...

Mon, 21 Feb 2022

We sit down with two of the most talented and respected people in Hollywood — Brian Koppelman and ...

Mon, 14 Feb 2022

We sit down with perhaps the only person besides Marc Andreessen who’s had a major influence on ea...

Thu, 10 Feb 2022

The Peloton journey has been one seriously wild ride. From can’t raise money to one of Tiger Globa...

Sun, 23 Jan 2022

Not only is Taylor Swift the biggest music artist of our generation by nearly every metric (it’s n...

Tue, 21 Dec 2021

Season 9 ends at the beginning — with the man who changed Hollywood forever and wrote the blueprin...

Tue, 14 Dec 2021

Note: This episode was published on Dec 14, 2021, approximately a year before FTX’s subsequent mel...

Tue, 07 Dec 2021

You've heard us talk about him every episode for the past two years... but until now most of you hav...

Thu, 02 Dec 2021

When does a creator become a company? Who says that media companies — or venture firms — have to...

Tue, 02 Nov 2021

Of our 65+ sources for the TSMC episode, one stood above the rest: a wonderful Knowledge Project epi...

Mon, 18 Oct 2021

We bring the epic saga of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller to a close (for now) with two of hist...

Tue, 05 Oct 2021

We sit down with the one & only Michael Mauboussin to dive deep into his incredible body of work...

Tue, 21 Sep 2021

It's time. We dive into the *original* American capitalist mega winner, Standard Oil, and its legend...

Mon, 06 Sep 2021

It's time. We dive into the unbelievable history behind the quietest technology giant of them all —...

Sun, 29 Aug 2021

We sit down with the one and only Kevin Rose to talk about his journey from pioneering Web 2.0 with ...

Mon, 09 Aug 2021

Alright, backstory's out of the way, and Acquired is rolling three hours deep on the venture firm th...

Mon, 26 Jul 2021

We kick off Season 9 with a classic: Part I of the a16z story. How did this brand new venture firm c...

Sun, 18 Jul 2021

We sit down with the hottest new protocol layer in crypto today: Solana, and its cofounder Anatoly Y...

Mon, 05 Jul 2021

We close out Season 8 with the most ambitious organization we've ever covered on Acquired: Ethereum,...

Sun, 20 Jun 2021

What do you get when you combine Berkshire Hathaway's approach with early-stage venture capital? Alt...

Sun, 06 Jun 2021

It's time. We wrap our Berkshire Hathaway trilogy with Warren and Charlie entering a new era: the ag...

Wed, 26 May 2021

Brad Stone joins us to discuss the making of the modern Amazon, and how it's morphed from the "flywh...

Wed, 12 May 2021

In Part II of our Berkshire Hathaway Trilogy (!), we pick up the story with Warren wandering in the ...

Wed, 05 May 2021

We team up with two of the very best English-language analysts covering China tech today, Rui Ma and...

Tue, 20 Apr 2021

It's time. After 150+ episodes on great companies, we tackle the granddaddy of them all — Berkshir...

Mon, 05 Apr 2021

We dive into the fast-changing world of direct-to-consumer digital health, with perhaps the best per...

Tue, 23 Mar 2021

Last Acquired left the plucky Rec Room crew in our 2018 "Part I" episode, they were a seed stage sta...

Wed, 10 Mar 2021

We dive into the history behind Meituan, the juggernaut Chinese "super-app" which dominates China's ...

Wed, 17 Feb 2021

For the entire 20th Century, you’d be hard pressed to find a better business than an American news...

Sun, 31 Jan 2021

We cover Sequoia Capital a lot on this show. Not only across our now four(!) dedicated episodes, but...

Mon, 18 Jan 2021

We had to do it. After 12 years and 3,000,000x appreciation, we kick off Season 8 with the best inve...

Wed, 16 Dec 2020

As regular listeners know, we typically cover some of the biggest companies who often receive the mo...

Thu, 10 Dec 2020

Over 13 years after its founding, one of the defining startup companies of the past decade finally m...

Wed, 09 Dec 2020

Live from the scene of its blockbuster IPO, we recount the crazy, roller coaster journey of this "Pa...

Tue, 01 Dec 2020

Acquired is live on the scene covering Salesforce's blockbuster $27.7B acquisition of Slack, with th...

Sun, 22 Nov 2020

Live from the 2020 ASCEND Space Conference, Acquired covers the full story behind the most "out ther...

Thu, 12 Nov 2020

Superstar past guest and Superhuman CEO Rahul Vorha joins us for a deep dive on how Superhuman appli...

Wed, 28 Oct 2020

A week before the 2020 US Presidential election, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo joins us to tell th...

Tue, 06 Oct 2020

On this special episode of Acquired, we're joined by a master interviewer himself, Patrick O'Shaughn...

Wed, 30 Sep 2020

On the eve of the 2020 NBA Finals, we dive DEEP into the history and business model of the league be...

Wed, 09 Sep 2020

Acquired teams up with the My First Million podcast for a “best of both worlds” crossover episod...

Tue, 01 Sep 2020

We go deep behind the "epic" story of a plucky game developer from Cary, North Carolina (by way of P...

Tue, 25 Aug 2020

We're joined by two very special guests, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz and her cofounder, spouse and Ev...

Thu, 16 Jul 2020

We kick off Season 7 with a bang: Pinduoduo, the incredible five year-old Chinese mashup of "Costco ...

Thu, 25 Jun 2020

We close out Season 6 with the story of perhaps the single most successful media entrepreneur of all...

Tue, 26 May 2020

On the eve of SpaceX's historic scheduled launch of its first human spaceflight mission — both the...

Mon, 11 May 2020

When you think of Intel today, you probably think of the microprocessor company. Maybe you also thin...

Tue, 28 Apr 2020

We're joined by the one and only Jason Calacanis for this very special episode, wherein we chronicle...

Tue, 14 Apr 2020

Sponsors:ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagentsHuntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntressVanta: https://...

Mon, 30 Mar 2020

On March 5th 2020, Sequoia Capital published a Medium post entitled ‘Coronavirus: The Black Swan o...

Fri, 20 Mar 2020

The world has changed. Acquired is changing too: we’re taking a pause from our normal episodes. Th...

Tue, 17 Mar 2020

5 years and 100+ episodes into Acquired, there’s been one question we get asked more than any othe...

Mon, 17 Feb 2020

The wait is over. Acquired returns with a very special Part II of the Sequoia Capital story, joined ...

Tue, 28 Jan 2020

We kick off Season 6 with a long-awaited Acquired Classic: Facebook’s $22B purchase of WhatsApp in...

Sun, 29 Dec 2019

Season 5, Episode 10: The Lean Startup and the Long-Term Stock Exchange (with Eric Ries) Acquired c...

Thu, 19 Dec 2019

Coming to you live from the University of Washington, Ben and David are joined by hundreds of awesom...

Sun, 08 Dec 2019

We take Acquired to the Old Town Road to cover the amazing story behind the biggest global sensation...

Mon, 25 Nov 2019

The Flywheel is strong with this one. We dive deep into the origins of one of the boldest business s...

Thu, 24 Oct 2019

It’s an IPO, it’s a bailout, it’s an... acquisition? We’re joined by the one and only Dan Pr...

Tue, 15 Oct 2019

We’re joined by the legendary Nolan Bushnell, founder not only of Atari, but also the only person ...

Thu, 26 Sep 2019

Acquired dives into the history behind storied venture firm Sequoia Capital and its legendary founde...

Mon, 26 Aug 2019

Ben and David cover the series of three 2004 Google acquisitions that formed the core of Google Maps...

Tue, 06 Aug 2019

Ben and David head north of the border to Ottawa, Canada to cover perhaps one of the greatest IPO su...

Mon, 22 Jul 2019

For our first episode of Season 5, Acquired returns to Shenzhen to cover another Chinese technology ...

Thu, 27 Jun 2019

We wrap up Season 4 with a very special (and accidental!) episode, a conversation with the CEO of Su...

Mon, 24 Jun 2019

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an... enterprise software company? We give the full Acquired t...

Tue, 18 Jun 2019

Zoom board member (and general partner at Emergence Capital) Santi Subotovsky joins us to tell the t...

Mon, 27 May 2019

Acquired looks back at a monumental IPO from a *much* different era: Electronic Arts. We’re joined...

Sat, 11 May 2019

Welcome to the big one. On the day of its IPO, we tell the story of Uber. It’s a story whose roots...

Tue, 23 Apr 2019

In the second episode of our APLUSS(Z!) IPO saga, we dive into the history behind the planet’s lar...

Sat, 30 Mar 2019

Call it the playoffs. Call it the Olympics. Call it March Madness. No matter which sports analogy yo...

Mon, 25 Feb 2019

We enter the wayback machine and revisit the subject of Acquired’s second ever episode, Facebook’...

Mon, 18 Feb 2019

Spotify + Gimlet/Anchor Quick Take!We continue to experiment on Acquired, this time with a quick-tak...

Sun, 03 Feb 2019

We dive into the crazy, little-known story of how this small, former PC-maker in Cambridge, England ...

Mon, 21 Jan 2019

Booyah! Acquired, the worldwide leader in acquisitions and IPOs, kicks off Season 4 with a classic: ...

Sun, 16 Dec 2018

We close out Season 3 and our China mini-series with a monster episode on Tencent, the Shenzhen-base...

Sun, 25 Nov 2018

We complete our two-part Netflix special with the company’s bold transition to streaming, includin...

Sun, 11 Nov 2018

In a world ravaged by late fees and lack of rewinding, one man two men from a sleepy California beac...

Mon, 29 Oct 2018

Ben & David are joined by special guest and Venmo cofounder Andrew Kortina for our first-ever SF...

Mon, 01 Oct 2018

Ben and David are joined by Adobe’s Chief Product Officer, Behance founder, Benchmark partner, aut...

Sun, 23 Sep 2018

We continue our China Tech series with perhaps the most incredible entrepreneurial journey in histor...

Mon, 10 Sep 2018

In this special episode Ben & David head to Recode’s SF office and sit down in the red chair w...

Mon, 20 Aug 2018

Ben and David are (almost) live on the scene covering the plucky Southern California “camera compa...

Sun, 05 Aug 2018

Acquired kicks off our China tech mini-series by teaming up with the best in the business: Hans and ...

Mon, 16 Jul 2018

Acquired kicks off Season 3 with a gangbuster two-hour extravaganza on America’s most successful a...

Sun, 17 Jun 2018

Acquired wraps up Season 2 with our first “elusive” private-private merger: Rover.com and its 20...

Tue, 05 Jun 2018

We’re live on the scene the day following the biggest announcement in the open source software wor...

Mon, 21 May 2018

If you thought the telecom business was boring, think again! Acquired brings you an episode packed w...

Fri, 04 May 2018

Acquired returns with a classic, delving into Microsoft’s first acquisition ever: Forethought Inc,...

Thu, 05 Apr 2018

Acquired wraps up a big few weeks of coverage with not an IPO or an M&A or a fundraising round, ...

Sun, 25 Mar 2018

Acquired is live on the scene following Dropbox’s public market debut. From playing a central role...

Thu, 22 Mar 2018

Acquired dives into the topic on the minds and lips of just about every VC and founder these days: S...

Mon, 19 Feb 2018

Acquired brings it all back home—to the smart home that is—with Google’s 2014 acquisition of N...

Tue, 06 Feb 2018

We launch mini-series on Acquired with a subject near & dear to our heroes’ hearts: startup fu...

Mon, 22 Jan 2018

Former Zappos Chairman & COO (and current Partner at Sequoia Capital) Alfred Lin joins our heroe...

Mon, 18 Dec 2017

Acquired cozies up to the fire and looks back on the year in tech. How wildly off were we on last ye...

Mon, 11 Dec 2017

Acquired crosses the half-century mark with an instant classic: Apple’s 2014 purchase of Beats, it...

Mon, 04 Dec 2017

Ben and David dive into the most talked-about tech IPO of 4Q 2017: Stitch Fix. After downsizing the ...

Mon, 20 Nov 2017

Ben & David cover the proposed largest tech M&A deal of all time, and in the process dive in...

Mon, 06 Nov 2017

Ben & David venture to the land down under (and reunite in-person!) to tell the story of the gra...

Sat, 07 Oct 2017

Today our heroes cover a deal that might have more impact on life in Silicon Valley than AI, wearabl...

Thu, 21 Sep 2017

Acquired is back and live on the scene! After months of speculation, Google announces today their ac...

Sun, 17 Sep 2017

On this extra-long episode of Acquired, Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast returns t...

Wed, 16 Aug 2017

Unicorns and ratchets and lawsuits, oh my! Our heroes dive into the history of Jack Dorsey’s famou...

Fri, 04 Aug 2017

Acquired dives into the legendary acquisition of Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen’s “second ac...

Tue, 25 Jul 2017

Acquired trains its lens on the “second or third best acquisition of all-time”, Priceline’s 20...

Wed, 12 Jul 2017

Ben & David cover the creation of the gaming world’s equivalent of the 70’s rock supergroup:...

Tue, 20 Jun 2017

Ben and David are once again live on the scene, this time covering the biggest disruption in grocery...

Sun, 11 Jun 2017

Ben and David are guests on Anchor's Podcast of the Day, discussing Acquired's origin story, show st...

Wed, 31 May 2017

Ben & David revisit the birth of the digital music revolution and Steve Jobs' "digital hub" stra...

Wed, 10 May 2017

Ben and David continue Acquired’s “tech and sports” mini-series with Disney’s 2016 acquisiti...

Sun, 23 Apr 2017

In honor of start of NBA playoffs, Ben & David venture off the beaten path to explore one of Ste...

Tue, 11 Apr 2017

Ben & David transcend the barriers of “real” reality, and dive into Facebook and Mark Zucker...

Mon, 03 Apr 2017

Ben & David "pour over" the 1992 IPO of the legendary Seattle coffee company with the help of Da...

Mon, 13 Mar 2017

Episode 33: Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!)    Ben & David dive deep into the ea...

Sat, 04 Mar 2017

Snap! Acquired is live on the scene reporting from the "Super Bowl" of 2017 tech events: Snap Inc's ...

Tue, 28 Feb 2017

Topics covered include:The global surge in 2012 of entrepreneurs starting ridesharing companies, now...

Tue, 24 Jan 2017

Topics covered include: P.A. Semi’s original moniker ("Palo Alto Semiconductor”) and its celebr...

Wed, 11 Jan 2017

Ben & David wrap up 2016 with a review of the top tech themes we discussed on the show this year...

Sat, 31 Dec 2016

Ben & David welcome very special guest Tom Alberg, board member and first lead investor in Amazo...

Fri, 16 Dec 2016

Topics covered include: Brian’s history working across “both sides of the aisle” as both a st...

Mon, 05 Dec 2016

Topics covered include: Marvel’s corporate origins as "Timely Publications”, created in 1939 by...

Fri, 11 Nov 2016

Hey Acquired listeners. A note about this show: we recorded this episode the night before the 2016 E...

Tue, 01 Nov 2016

An acquisition so wild and crazy, they had to do it again. And again. Ben & David cover tech’s...

Sun, 23 Oct 2016

Ben & David broadcast live from the 2016 GeekWire Summit covering one of the all-time greats, Ap...

Thu, 13 Oct 2016

CFO of Zillow Group Kathleen Philips joins Ben and David to cover the show’s first true “merger”...

Tue, 27 Sep 2016

Ben and David go inside the M&A press with Bloomberg’s technology M&A reporter and host of...

Fri, 16 Sep 2016

Ben & David examine Google’s 2005 purchase of Android for a rumored $50M, undeniably one of th...

Mon, 29 Aug 2016

Ben & David break down Jet.com’s meteoric rise, culminating in Walmart’s blockbuster $3B+ ac...

Mon, 22 Aug 2016

Ben & David are joined by special guest Taylor Barada, VP and Head of Corporate Development &amp...

Wed, 03 Aug 2016

Topics covered include: Community Showcase: the Nexcast podcasting platform from listener Brian San...

Tue, 12 Jul 2016

The meta show: Ben and David turn their gaze inward and examine the podcasting industry through E. W...

Tue, 05 Jul 2016

Ben and David return to make their first foray into enterprise software, covering Salesforce’s $2....

Thu, 16 Jun 2016

Ben and David cover the 3-day-old acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. They cover...

Sun, 05 Jun 2016

Ben and David are joined by Todd Bishop, technology reporter and co-founder of GeekWire, to discuss ...

Sun, 22 May 2016

Ben and David tackle their first failed acquisition: Facebook's 2013 offer to buy Snapchat. They cov...

Sun, 08 May 2016

Ben and David return to technology acquisitions by examining a classic: eBay's 2002 purchase of PayP...

Tue, 26 Apr 2016

Ben and David deviate entirely from the stated purpose of the show, tackling this non-technology acq...

Tue, 29 Mar 2016

Ben and David continue the cloud productivity saga with Google Docs. They examine the suite of acqui...

Mon, 29 Feb 2016

Ben and David have special guest Kurt DelBene on to discuss Microsoft's acquisition of Acompli, Sunr...

Wed, 03 Feb 2016

Ben and David test the widely-held belief that YouTube was one of the most successful tech acquisiti...

Tue, 19 Jan 2016

Riding closely on the tails of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ben and David cover Disney's 2012 acqui...

Mon, 14 Dec 2015

In the last episode of 2015, Ben and David discuss Apple's acquisition of Siri. Notable topics inclu...

Mon, 30 Nov 2015

Ben and David are joined by Former Microsoft VP and Co-Founder of Xbox, Ed Fries, to discuss the Bun...

Mon, 16 Nov 2015

Ben and David discuss Amazon's acquisition of Twitch in 2014. Unlike previous episodes, this recent ...

Sun, 01 Nov 2015

Ben and David discuss Facebook's acquisition of Instagram in 2012. Was it a success? If so, what are...

Thu, 15 Oct 2015

Ben and David discuss Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006. Was it a success? If so, what are the c...