Acquired

On this extra-long episode of Acquired, Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast returns to discuss perhaps the most (in)famous merger of all time: AOL - Time Warner. Who doesn’t remember the soothing sounds of 56k modems and the timeless phrase, “You’ve Got Mail”? Join us all as we unpack how one of the biggest ISP’s of the 90’s tried to take over the world… and fell far short. Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics Covered Include: AOL’s status in the 90’s / early 00’sExplaining just what it is that AOL did at the height of their popularityHow AOL pioneered a number of internet paradigmsAOL’s persistent money troubles and bailouts from other companiesSteve Case foreseeing the coming era of broadband, inspiring AOL to pursue working with a cable companyEbay vs. Time Warner in a down-to-the-wire war for a merger with AOLWhy the money dried up for AOL after their merger with Time WarnerAOL and its value in the post-Time-Warner eraSpeculating about what would have happened had AOL and others stayed independent businessesAnd much discussion on how to grade this one…  The Carve Out: Ben: Give and Take by Adam Grant David:  Season of the Witch by David Talbot Brian: A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Rob Goodman

Unicorns and ratchets and lawsuits, oh my! Our heroes dive into the history of Jack Dorsey’s famous “other” company, Square. Was the Square IPO a canary in the coal mine signaling doom & gloom for the so-called unicorn companies of the early 2010’s, or a mispriced and misunderstood diamond in the rough? Acquired weighs in.Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics Covered Include:Square’s deep origins in the early 90’s in St. Louis, MO with the initial meeting of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey & Jim McKelveyMcKelvey’s side glass blowing business and the “inspiration” for Square that came much later in the late 2000’sThe complicated involvement of Washington University (in St. Louis) professor Robert Morley, who had worked for years developing payment card reading technologyThe company’s early meeting with Scott Forstall at Apple, and its “significant” impact on the its name and designThe real disruptive innovation of Square and its business model (hint: not just building a mobile card reader)Square’s massive payments deal with Starbucks in 2012 and its impact on the companyThe evolution of Square’s business from a simple card reader to cloud-based Point of Sale (PoS) system and entire suite of merchant tools & business management servicesThe drama leading up to Square’s IPO (including at Jack Dorsey’s “other” company, Twitter), dynamics and narratives affecting its pricing, the effect of IPO “ratchets”, and the company’s performance over the ~2 years since The Carve Out:David: Bob Iger on Nick Bilton’s  Inside the Hive podcastBen:  The World After Capital on GitBooks

Acquired dives into the legendary acquisition of Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen’s “second act” software company Opsware, from a perspective never before heard—HP’s side of the story! Our heroes are joined by Michel Feaster, who led both the acquisition for HP and then the Opsware product as part of the integrated company afterward under Ben Horowitz. Today the tables have turned: Michel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Seattle-based startup Usermind, and Ben Horowitz sits on her board on behalf of A16Z. This episode is not one to miss!   Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn More Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics covered include: Opsware’s early history and origins as Loudcloud, the “second act” of internet wunderkind Marc Andreessen and Netscape product manager Ben HorowitzBen’s first person telling of the Loudcloud/Opsware history in The Hard Thing about Hard Things, as well as the great Wired "period piece” covering Loudcloud’s launch in August 2000The importance of timing, and Loudcloud’s too-early vision of—essentially—AWS before AWS (including eerie parallels between the metaphor Andreessen used to describe Loudcloud during the company’s first press briefing, and Jeff Bezos’s description of AWS at YC nearly a decade later)Creation of the “Opsware” tool inside of Loudcloud to automate deploying and configuring servers within Loudcloud’s data centersLoudcloud's meteoric rise, crash following the burst of the internet bubble, and hard pivot as a public company into Opsware—now an enterprise software company selling datacenter tools Michel’s role in HP’s evaluation of the company as an acquisition target, and process leading to its $1.6B acquisition in July 2007Integration of the company into HP’s culture and sales channelThe creation of Ben & Marc’s “third act”, the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and what it’s like for Michel now having Ben as an investor on her board at Usermind   The Carve Out: Ben: StarStaX star trail photography softwareDavid: Jimmy Iovine on the Bill Simmons Podcast

Former Jetsetter & Room 77 CEO, Drew Patterson, joins the podcast to discuss the rise of Booking.com, the biggest startup in the travel industry. Topics covered include the founding of Booking.com, the role of search in online travel, Expedia's decision not to acquire Booking.com, and the success of Booking.com after its acquisition. The episode also touches on the challenges of innovation in the travel industry and the potential growth of Bookham.

Ben & David cover the creation of the gaming world’s equivalent of the 70’s rock supergroup: the 2008 merger of Blizzard and Activision. We tell the story from the Blizzard perspective, tracing the history of one of the most innovative companies in the business from humble beginnings at the hands of UCLA undergrads, to surviving multiple acquisition rollups (including at one point being owned by the French national water company), to joining ultimately with Activision to form the largest gaming company in the world, all while inventing multiple game genres that define the industry as we know it today. Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics covered include: Blizzard’s founding in 1991 as "Silicon & Synapse” by recent UCLA grads Allen Adham, Frank Pearce, and Mike MorhaimeThe team’s first projects making ports for other games, including Battle Chess on the Commodore 64Early success on the Super Nintendo with Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost VikingsOrigin of the Real-Time Strategy game genre (“RTS”) and Blizzard’s fist mega-hit, Warcraft Blizzard’s crazy corporate ownership changes over the yearsDevelopment of further legendary game franchises like Diablo and Starcraft, along with sequels to Warcraft and the rise of the rise of player moddingEmergence of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre (“MOBA”) from the Warcraft III modding community, and its growth into one of the biggest sectors in the games and esports industries todayBlizzard’s role in developing the concept of online gaming, from early hacks to play against friends to World of Warcraft and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (“MMORPG’s”)The 2008 merger with storied gaming company Activision Growth and success since the merger, including the launch of new game franchises Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch  The Carve Out: Ben:  Dick Costolo on Vanity Fair’s  Inside the Hive  podcastDavid: Nellie and Joe's 100% Natural Key Lime Juice (tip:  buy in bulk from Walmart/Jet)

Covering Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods Market, the podcast dives into the history of grocery, tech, and Amazon, from Webvan to Instacart. It explores Whole Foods' origins, struggles, and sale to Amazon. The acquisition's implications include Amazon Go, transportation cost reduction, international grocery moves, and leveraging Whole Foods' assets. The podcast also discusses the rise of Kiva Systems, potential human capital management problems for Amazon, and the competition between Instacart and Amazon.

This podcast explores the birth of the digital music revolution with Apple's acquisition of SoundJam MP, which became iTunes. They discuss the challenges of developing MP3 codec, the impact of iTunes on Mac users, and the shift to subscription-based models. They also discuss homogenization and the future of individual expression, competing business interests between MLB and BAMtech, and share their eye-opening experience of visiting Israel.

Ben and David continue Acquired’s “tech and sports” mini-series with Disney’s 2016 acquisition of a minority stake (with the right to purchase a majority stake at a later date) in BAMTech, the internet streaming company originally founded as part of Major League Baseball in the early 2000’s. However the importance of this story goes deeper than just sports, with major ramifications for nearly every major technology company from Amazon to YouTube. Even if you’re not not sure if baseball’s played on a diamond or a gridiron, tune in as we swing for the fences in predicting the future of TV! Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics covered include: What is BAMTech, and why is it, according to The Verge, "the future of television”?BAMTech’s origins as part of Major League Baseball's Advanced Media division ("MLBAM)”)MLBAM’s founding CEO Bob Bowman’s decidedly “non-tech” background, and growth into one of the most important tech leaders of the past 15 yearsInitial technology struggles and learnings from early streaming efforts (including a botched audio package of Ichiro Suzuki’s games with the Mariners for fans in Japan)Landing on a streaming model that works with the launch of MLB.tv in 2002/2003—three years before YouTube is founded! Improvement of the MLB.tv service and MLBAM’s streaming expertise over the next ten years through the rise of mobile, and simultaneous  growth of MLBAM’s revenues to over $1B annuallyMLBAM’s initial deals to expand its streaming services beyond baseball, starting with ESPN in 2010, then WWE, the PGA,  HBO and  the NHLThe importance of media rights, and MLBAM’s transition from a simple tech/infrastructure provider to  a full-fledged media company The decision to initiate a spin-off process for BAMTech from MLB in August 2015, and Disney’s $1B investment into the newly created spin-out company in August 2016Disney’s subsequent announcement that they’ll be  working with BAMTech to create a direct-to-consumer ESPN streaming serviceBAMTech’s  $300M deal with Riot Games in December 2016 for the media rights to League of Legends eSports content Bob Bowman’s announcement in February 2017 that he’ll be stepping back to from a day to day role, and  hiring of former Amazon VP of Video Michael Paull as BAMTech’s new CEO  Followups & Hot Takes:  Facebook’s struggles with Instant Articles Microsoft killing Wunderlist (David is VERY sad) Instagram continues its torrid growth, passes 700M MAU Amazon’s new Look  The Cloudera IPOConfirmation the ride sharing wars are far from over:  Didi raises $5.5B in the largest private funding round ever  The Carve Out: Ben: NYT’s 4th Down BotDavid: Wait But Why on Elon Musk’s “Wizard Hat"

Explore the acquisition of the LA Clippers NBA franchise by Steve Ballmer, including the team's history, struggles, and turnaround. Dive into the fallout from the offensive comments made by the former owner, and the forced sale to Ballmer for $2B. Discuss the impact of the sale on sports franchise valuations and the future prospects of the Clippers. Touch on the growing appeal of the NBA and the potential future coverage of esports. Also, learn about the importance of iTunes reviews for podcast growth and discover a security compliance platform, Vanta.

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:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCTopics 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 forumsLegendary 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 VRThe newly-formed Oculus’s wildly successful August 2012 Kickstarter campaign, including video endorsements from both Carmack and Valve founder Gabe NewellOculus’s subsequent venture capital fundraisings, and catching the attention of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Facebook’s acquisition of the company in March 2014 for $2.3BThe 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 SXSWDavid: Adam Gopnik asks Are Liberals on the Wrong Side of History?