Acquired

Ben and David deviate entirely from the stated purpose of the show, tackling this non-technology acquisition that is so recent, we have no idea if it went well yet. But, the April 2016 acquisition of Virgin America by Alaska Airlines was so fascinating, we had to do it!

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe

Items mentioned in the show: 

• Louis C.K...

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

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit...

Ben and David tackle their first failed acquisition: Facebook's 2013 offer to buy Snapchat. They cover the fascinating story of Snapchat's creation and growth, their blossoming business model, how it would be different inside of Facebook, and what the future holds.

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit...

Ben and David are joined by Todd Bishop, technology reporter and co-founder of GeekWire, to discuss Facebook's 2011 acquisition of Push Pop Press. 

Sponsors:
NetSuite: https://bit.ly/acquirednetsuite
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

• The founding story of Push Pop Press by Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas...

Ben and David cover the 3-day-old acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. They cover LinkedIn’s founding story by Reid Hoffman, break down their core businesses, analyze recent stock behavior, and speculate on the future of the company inside Microsoft. The big question - were they worth the price tag?

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit...

Ben and David return to make their first foray into enterprise software, covering Salesforce’s $2.5B acquisition of ExactTarget in 2013 with the help of special guest and ExactTarget cofounder & CEO, Scott Dorsey.   Technical note: due to an issue we didn’t catch during recording, audio quality is significantly lower than usual for this episode (especially David’s voice)...

The meta show: Ben and David turn their gaze inward and examine the podcasting industry through E. W. Scripps’ recent acquisitions of the Midroll podcast advertising network and Stitcher podcast client. Featuring discussion of our own product process and metrics at Acquired. 

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit...

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...

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:
NetSuite: https://bit...

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:
NetSuite: https://bit.ly/acquirednetsuite
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe
Vanta: https://bit...