A few weeks ago, we told you that Acquired is doing something in New York City on July 15 with our good friends at J.P. Morgan Payments. Well, the big announcement is finally here: We are doing our 2025 Live Show… at Radio City Music Hall! Radio City is of course the iconic New York City theater that hosts the Rockettes and the Tony Awards, and has hosted the Grammys, the MTV VMAs, and the NFL Draft. And it’s also a storied part of Rockefeller Center, as chronicled on our Standard Oil episodes. We can't think of anything more "Acquired". If you want to be part of the ticket pre-sale, you can sign up at acquired.fm/nyc. While Radio City is the world's largest indoor theater (with room for 6,000 Acquired fans), more than 6,000 folks came to last year's Chase Center show! So get cracking on figuring out which friends and co-workers you want to go with (seats are assigned), and get your hotel + plane tickets booked! Tickets will be available in $100 and $200 tiers. This is — without a doubt — the biggest undertaking we've ever done here at Acquired. In true Broadway fashion, we’re keeping the show details under wraps… but trust us, it'll be an evening of surprise and delight. If your idea of fun is the world’s greatest business and technology nerds gathering together for a night on the big stage, this is for you. Oh, and a huge thank you to all our friends at J.P. Morgan for making this possible. We can't wait to see you there! Sign up for ticket pre-sale: https://acquired.fm/nyc

What if we told you that the most important company in US healthcare was run from a farm in rural Wisconsin? And that farm contained the world’s largest subterranean auditorium, as well as Disneyland—style replicas of Hogwarts and the Emerald City? What if we told you that the person who started, runs and owns this establishment has legally ensured that it will never be sold, never go public and never acquire another company? And that this person, Judy Faulkner, is also likely the wealthiest and most successful self-made woman in history? Welcome to the story of Epic Systems, the software company that underpins the majority of the American healthcare system today. Epic isn’t “just” an electronic medical record (the category it’s usually lumped into), or an online patient portal (which is how most of the US population interacts with it via its MyChart application). It’s more akin to a central nervous system for hospitals and health clinics. Almost everything in a hospital — from patient interactions to billing, staffing, scheduling, prescriptions and even research — happens on Epic’s platform, and over 90% of American medical schools’ graduating doctors, nurses and health administrative staff are trained on it during their educations. Tune in as we dive into the almost-unbelievable story of how this epic company came to be! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners: * J.P. Morgan Payments * Fundrise * ServiceNow * Crusoe Links: * Save the date, July 15 in NYC! * Epic’s Verona campus * Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Epic Systems Study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Ken Block in San Francisco * Nintendo Switch 2 * Knives Out * Brat by Charli xcx * Music To Refine To: A Remix Companion to Severance by ODESZA More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

When you saw this episode pop up in your feed, you either jumped for joy and hit play immediately (in which case you’re not reading this), or you said “Huh. That’s a surprising episode.” Well, if you’re in group two, boy do we have a treat for you! IPL is the fastest-growing, most dynamic and most disruptive force in the sports industry today… and this may come as a shock to many Americans, but it might just be on track to surpass the NFL as the world’s most valuable sports league. The IPL is currently valued at $16B, with a TV rights deal that’s higher in per-match dollars than the NBA and the English Premier League. And all this for a league that’s right now just 10 teams who collectively only play 74 total games per season… and oh yeah, the whole thing is only 17 years old! Tune in for an absolutely amazing story, filled with genius, drama (Rupert Murdoch! Disney! Bollywood!) and a perfect encapsulation of the rise of modern India. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners: * J.P. Morgan Payments * ServiceNow * Fundrise * Crusoe Links: * Save the date, July 15 in NYC! * Ed Cowan’s Business Breakdowns of IPL * Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade IPL Study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Severance * Stratechery More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status and waitlist times… yet they produce over 1m units / year (roughly 10x annual Birkin production). They make the most universally recognized and desired Swiss watches… yet their founder wasn’t Swiss and didn’t start the company in Switzerland! If Rolex were publicly traded, they’d almost certainly be among the top 50 market cap companies in the world… yet they’re 100% owned by a charitable foundation in Geneva that (among other things) literally just gives away money to local people in the city. Tune in for one of the most fascinating and admirable companies we’ve ever covered on Acquired. We had an absolute blast making the episode, and hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners: * J.P. Morgan Payments * ServiceNow * Fundrise * Huntress Links: * The Renaissance of the Swiss Watch Industry - Marc Bridge * HODINKEE - Inside All Four Rolex Manufacturing Facilities * “If you were…” campaign * Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Rolex Study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Bluey * Acquired on Armchair Expert * Eleven Reader More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

We flew to Taiwan to interview TSMC Founder Morris Chang in a rare English interview. In fact, the last long-form video interview we could find was 17 years ago at the Computer History Museum… conducted by the one-and-only Jensen Huang! This episode came about after asking ourselves a version of the Jeff Bezos “regret minimization” question: what conversations would we most regret not having if the chance passed Acquired by? Dr. Chang was number one on our list, and thanks to a little help from Jensen himself, we’re so happy to make it happen. Dr. Chang shares the stories of a few crucial moments from TSMC’s history which have only been written about in his (currently Chinese-only) memoirs, including how TSMC won Apple’s iPhone and Mac chip business and a 2009 discrepancy with NVIDIA that almost jeopardized their relationship, and the lessons he took from them. We can’t think of a better way to kick off 2025. Please enjoy! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring ‘25 Season partners: * J.P. Morgan Payments * ServiceNow * Fundrise Links: * Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade TSMC Study * Karina Bao’s writing Carve Outs: * AAA * Defunctland * Everything Everywhere all at Once * Asianometry More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Notes: This episode contains a paid endorsement for Fundrise. All investments can lead to loss. Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

We dive into the unbelievable and unlikely history behind the quietest technology giant of them all: the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Founded in 1987 by the then-56 year old Morris Chang, already a legend in the semiconductor industry by virtue of his meteoric rise and fall at Texas Instruments, TSMC today manufactures nearly all the leading-edge chips for Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom, Qualcomm, AMD, and yes — even Intel. Tune in for an incredible story of innovation, perseverance and lasers. Lots and lots of lasers! Note: this is a remastered version of our original 2021 episode. We don’t often re-release old episodes, but in this case we have a very timely reason for doing so. Stay tuned! :) Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic partners: * Vanta * J.P. Morgan Payments * Statsig Links: * Episode Sources Carve Outs: * Ted Lasso (Season 1) * Greek * Who is Michael Ovitz? More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

M&M’s, Snickers, Milky Way, Double Mint, Ben’s Rice, Pedigree, Whiskas, VCA, Banfield… all the brands you know, owned by the company you know nothing about: Mars, Incorporated. And Mars itself is 100% owned and deeply intertwined with the Mars family, who are currently the second wealthiest (and perhaps first most secretive!) family in the United States. Tune in for one of the 20th century’s most incredible entrepreneurial stories across candy and pet care, and one that’s all the more incredible because it’s so little-known! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘24 Season partners: * J.P. Morgan Payments * Crusoe * Statsig Links: * Hershey’s M&M response: Hershey-ets * Our past episodes on Berkshire Hathaway, LVMH, and Novo Nordisk * Worldly Partners Multi-Decade Mars Study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Dandelion Chocolate and the Dandelion Advent Calendar * Tesla Model Y + repair service * Silo * Home Alone More Acquired: * Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes * Join the Slack * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

IKEA may be the most singular company we’ve ever studied on Acquired. They’re a globally scaled, $50B annual revenue company with no direct competitors — yet have only ~5% market share. They’re one of the largest retailers in the world — yet sell only their own products. They generate a few billion in free cash flow every year — yet have no shareholders. And oh yeah, they also sell hot dogs cheaper than Costco! (Sort of.) Tune in for an episode flat-packed with counterintuitive lessons about how this folksy mail order business from the Swedish countryside came into your living rooms (and bedrooms and dining rooms and kitchens and bathrooms and patios and garages and backyards) all over the globe! Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Please take our 2024 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us! * The Testament of a Furniture Dealer * Our past episodes on Costco, Walmart, Amazon, LVMH and Hermès * Worldly Partners Multi-Decade IKEA Study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Detroiters * The 11-inch iPad Pro * The QB School * Ice Cube at the World Series 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Meta is a company everyone knows (literally, everyone). But, somehow, it’s also a company that few people feel they actually understand. Their products are used by more humans than any other’s in history — almost half of the entire world’s population daily. But… what is Meta? Why do they do what they do? How do they do what they do? Ask ten people and you’ll likely get ten very different sets of answers. Today, we dive deeper than we’ve ever gone trying to find Acquired’s answers to those questions. And after months of research and 6+ hours of incredible stories about how they (and really “they” being Mark himself) bet it all and win time and time again in the face of overwhelming odds, we arrive at our answers. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, AI, Oculus, Orion, it’s all here. Tune in for one of the greatest corporate stories of all time: Meta, a Mark Zuckerberg Production. Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Please take our 2024 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us! https://acquired.fm/survey * Our past episodes on Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Snapchat, the Snap IPO, TikTok, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and the Mark Zuckerberg Interview * Worldly Partners: Meta multi-decade study * Episode sources Carve Outs: * Ben Cohen’s piece on NotebookLM * Mr. McMahon * The Dwarkesh Podcast 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Here it is: the complete video of the most unbelievable night of Acquired’s nine-year life… our sold out live show at the Chase Center in San Francisco. We joked during the months (months!) of preparation leading up to this event that it was like planning a wedding for 6,000 Acquired fans, and the guest list included Jamie Dimon, Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg… no pressure! But thanks to our amazing partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments, together we were able to make something incredible. Tune in and enjoy the celebration! Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Mike Taylor, the truly incomparable performer of Who Got the Truth? * Mike Amiri (who designed Mark’s shirt) 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Mark is the iconic founder CEO of our time. At Chase Center on September 10, 2024, he did an unprecedented thing: a live conversation in front of 6,000 people on Meta’s company strategy, sharing stories from early Facebook history, and his thoughts on the future of AI, VR, and AR. Mark was remarkably candid in our discussion, and gave us a window into his real and intense daily demeanor leading Meta. (And his other life endeavors!) We can't wait to release the complete video of the whole night, including our surprise conversations with Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, and cameo appearances from Jensen Huang and Mike Taylor (the incredible singer of “Who Got the Truth?”). That’s coming in a couple weeks, but for now: enjoy this conversation with Mark Zuckerberg. Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Mike Amiri (who designed Mark’s shirt!) 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Summer greetings from Acquired! Two items for this “mini-episode”: 1. Tickets are now available for our live show at Chase Center in San Francisco, with special guests including Mark Zuckerberg (!). The show is Tuesday, September 10th, with doors opening at 5 PM for an hour of mingling with other listeners before the show starts at 6 PM. Huge thank you to the J.P. Morgan Payments team for being our incredible partner in making this happen. Tickets are almost gone so make sure you grab one ASAP — you don’t want to miss this night! https://acquired.fm/sf 2. We also figured this is a good excuse to update you all on the state of Acquired — after an incredible first half of the year (including WSJ’s profile of the show) we are taking the rest of the summer off to recharge, parent our young children, and prepare for the big night in September. We hope you’re having a great summer, and we’ll see you live in the fall! Carve Outs: * Thule Urban Glide 3 * Disney’s Aulani Resort * Meller sunglasses * Quarterback and Receiver on Netflix More Acquired: * Subscribe to ACQ2 * Join the Slack: https://acquired.fm/slack © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

In 1999, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world. And in 2019, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world, again. But… what happened in the twenty years in between? The answer, as we discovered in our research, is probably not what you think. In this episode we explore and analyze the browser wars and the DOJ case, Windows XP through 8, Surface, Xbox, search, Yahoo!, Bing, the iPhone, Nokia, mobile, social, Facebook… and oh yeah, a little thing called Azure and the enterprise — which ended up becoming so big that no failures mattered. Tune in for Microsoft, Volume II. Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Bill Gurley on Android’s “Less Than Free” business model * All episode sources Carve Outs: * Meta Ray-Bans * Ozlo Sleepbuds * M3 Macbook Air * Model Y 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Starbucks. You’d be hard pressed to name any brand that’s more ubiquitous in the world today. With nearly half a billion global customer purchases per week across its stores and 3rd party retail channels, a significant portion of the human population gets their daily fix in the green and white paper cup. (Including our own Ben Gilbert who famously enjoys his daily spinach feta wrap. :) But it wasn’t always this way. Long before the frappuccinos and the PSLs and the cake pops, Starbucks was just a small-time Seattle roaster that only sold beans — and was started not by Howard Schultz but rather the guys who later ran Peet’s (!). Starting from six tiny stores when Howard took over in 1987, this quirky coffee company named after a character from Moby Dick has scaled to nearly 40,000 locations worldwide. Today, in a first for Acquired, the protagonist himself joins us as a third cohost to tell the whole story of Starbucks. And Howard is in the perfect moment to do this — after three separate stints as CEO he’s now retired, off the board of directors, and in his own words “not coming back.” So place a mobile order (or not! as you’ll hear Howard speak about), sit back with your own favorite Starbucks items, and enjoy. Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn The Biggest Thing We’ve Ever Done: * San Francisco. September 10, 2024. Mark your calendars. Links: * Howard’s letter “The Soul of a Brand” * Worldly Partners’ multi-decade Starbucks analysis * Starbucks S-1 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Microsoft. After nearly a decade of Acquired episodes, we are finally ready to tackle the most valuable company ever created. The company that put a computer on every desk and in every home. The company that invented the software business model. The company that so thoroughly and completely dominated every conceivable competitor that the United States government intervened and kneecapped it… yet it’s STILL the most valuable company in the world today. This episode tells the story of Microsoft in its heyday, the PC Era. We cover its rise from a teenage dream to the most powerful business and technology force in history — the 20-year period from 1975 to 1995 that took Bill and Paul from the Lakeside high school computer room to launching Windows 95 alongside Jay Leno and the Rolling Stones. From BASIC to DOS, Windows, Office, Intel, IBM, Xerox PARC, Apple, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer… it’s all here, and it’s all amazing. Tune in and enjoy… Microsoft. Sponsors: Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn Links: * Congress changing copyright law in 1980 to include “computer programs” * Acquired “classic” on Microsoft’s 1987 acquisition of Forethought / PowerPoint * Quartr's charts on Microsoft's revenues, market cap, IBM comparison, and more * All episode sources Carve Outs: * LGR * André 3000’s new album + GQ Interview * Meta Ray-Bans * Visual Designer Julia Rundberg * Summer Health 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 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.