Acquired

Topics covered include: 

• P.A. Semi’s original moniker ("Palo Alto Semiconductor”) and its celebrity founder (in the semiconductor world) Dan Dobberpuhl
• History of the back and forth tradeoffs between Intel’s powerful x86 chips and low power alternatives like ARM processors 
• Dobberpuhl’s technology breakthroughs throughout his career that enabled true low-power + high-performance chips
• The initial target markets for P.A...

Topics covered include:

• The global surge in 2012 of entrepreneurs starting ridesharing companies, nowhere moreso than China 
• Didi CEO Cheng Wei and investor Wang Gang’s backgrounds at Alibaba, first entrepreneurial effort in Momo, and Momo’s pivot to Didi Dache
• The culling of the ridesharing herd in China down to Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache through brutal competition and involvement of the “big three” Chinese internet companies 
• Rise of the Chinese...

Snap! Acquired is live on the scene reporting from the "Super Bowl" of 2017 tech events: Snap Inc's hugely anticipated (and just plain huge) IPO. What does the future hold for this plucky “camera company”? Will Snap's IPO endure as tech's most important picture-frame since the  2012 debut of Facebook, or is it destined to fade as just another snapshot? We debate! 

Sponsors:
NetSuite: https://bit.ly/acquirednetsuite
Crusoe: https://bit...

Episode 33: Overture (with the Internet History Podcast!)    Ben & David dive deep into the early days of internet search, with the help of the best in the internet history business: Brian McCullough from the Internet History Podcast! We are huge fans of IHP at Acquired, so this was a real treat to collaborate with Brian and the great work he does over there...

Ben & David "pour over" the 1992 IPO of the legendary Seattle coffee company with the help of Dan Levitan, who served as lead investment banker on the IPO and who would later co-found the venture capital firm Maveron with Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz.

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

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

In honor of start of NBA playoffs, Ben & David venture off the beaten path to explore one of Steve Ballmer’s most famous acquisitions, his 2014 purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise. Was this landmark purchase a steal or a turnover for the former Microsoft CEO? We speculate wildly! 

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

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...

Ben & David revisit the birth of the digital music revolution and Steve Jobs' "digital hub" strategy, with Apple's 2000 acquisition of the Mac music player SoundJam MP, which would go on to become iTunes. We relive the 90's with brushed metal interfaces, music visualizers and of course, software sold in (physical) boxes.

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

Ben and David are guests on Anchor's Podcast of the Day, discussing Acquired's origin story, show structure, and how the show gets made. If you're new to the show and looking for a primer, this is a great place to jump in! Sponsor: https://acquired.fm/zoo