Business Wars

It’s January 14th, 2003, and 56-year-old Mardiros Iskenderian, the founder of the family-owned chain of rotisserie restaurants Zankou Chicken, is leaving the house for the first time in months.Twenty years ago, the Iskenderians transplanted their business from war-torn Beirut to sunny Los Angeles, where it blossomed into a California institution. But today, Mardiros is battling cancer—and losing. He kisses his wife Rita and heads for the door. It’ll be the last time she’ll see him alive.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Microsoft has officially won the battle against Netscape, but for Bill Gates, the browser war is far from over. The federal government has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, and called Gates to Washington, D.C. for questioning.Hotshot prosecutor David Boies aims to show that Microsoft used its monopoly on PC operating systems to drive Netscape out of business. The case has the potential to bring down the software giant once and for all. And the televised drama of a smooth-talking lawyer facing off against a geeky billionaire leaves the nation riveted.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To compete with Netscape, Bill Gates is forced to do the one thing he hates most: give tech away for free. He bundles Internet Explorer with Windows, effectively making his browser ubiquitous--and Netscape’s redundant. Suddenly, Netscape, the company that launched the dot-com boom and shattered records with its IPO, finds itself on life support.But the battle isn’t over. Attorney General Janet Reno has been watching Microsoft snuff out the competition, and she’s about to make life hell for Bill Gates.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, discusses how Bill Gates and Microsoft are threatened by the rise of the internet, leading to fierce competition in the browser wars of the mid-90s. The podcast delves into the negotiations, legal battles, and strategic moves made by both Netscape and Microsoft to dominate the market.

It’s 1974, and a young programmer named Paul Allen has just caught a glimpse of the world’s first personal computer, the Altair 8800. It has the potential to change the computing landscape forever — but it doesn’t yet have an operating system. Altair’s developers sank every dollar they had into its hardware, banking that someone else would figure out how to make their machine run.Now programmers are racing to develop an operating system and deliver it to the company’s headquarters in New Mexico. Allen knows he can do it, but in order to do it first, he’ll need some help. For that, he reaches out to his childhood friend, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore named Bill Gates.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Two disgruntled tech whizzes, Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen, join forces to exact revenge on the companies that wronged them, building a browser so fast and powerful that it wipes their competitors off the face of the web. In private, they call it a “Mosaic Killer,” but in public, it’s called “Netscape Navigator.”The launch of their new browser will mark the beginning of a new era in computing, the birth of a new economy based on the web, and the moment Microsoft put a target on their backs.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s 1992, and in the basement of the chemistry building at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two computer science students are working on a new web browser. Up to this point, browsing has made up less than one percent of all internet traffic, but Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina are about to change all that. Fueled by a combination of Pepperidge Farm cookies, Skittles and hubris, Andreessen and Bina emerge from the basement with Mosaic, the user-friendly web browser that will popularize the internet—if it doesn’t crash the school’s server first. Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the extreme marketing battle between Red Bull and Monster reaches unprecedented heights (128,000 feet above sea level, to be precise), a new challenger steps onto the scene. 5-hour Energy, the tiny titan in the two ounce can, quickly plows through the energy drink market, generating hundreds of millions of dollars each year and leaving a trail of failed imitators in its wake.But for the moment, Red Bull and Monster have bigger issues on their hands. A string of unexpected deaths and hospitalizations, a high-profile lawsuit, and whispers of a government ban threaten to topple their energy empire.Support this show by supporting our sponsors!Learn more about the well-connected 2019 Lincoln MKC at Lincoln.com/WonderySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As Red Bull plans its U.S. invasion, an unlikely upstart vies to beat it to market. Led by branding guru Mark Hall, the wholesome Hansen Beverage Company launches Monster, a grungy, all-American alternative to its yuppie European competitor. Not only does Hall intend to pull Hansen back from the verge of bankruptcy, his plans will position Monster to take a massive bite out of Red Bull’s multi-billion dollar industry. Support this show by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s the early 1980s, and in Bangkok, Thailand, a jet-lagged toothpaste marketing exec named Dietrich Mateschitz has just tasted Krating Daeng, an energy tonic popular with rickshaw drivers. The flavor is repellant—it’s sickly sweet—but to Mateschitz’s surprise, it completely cures his jetlag. Suddenly, he sees a business opportunity. Energy drinks like these are huge in East Asia, but virtually unheard of in Europe. The biggest challenge will be figuring out how to market it—starting with a new name. He knows “Krating Daeng” won’t sell, so he opts for the nearest English equivalent: Red Bull.Support this show by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.