Acquired copertina

Acquired

Acquired

Di: Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
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Every company has a story. Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.Copyright 2026 ACQ, LLC Economia Finanza personale
Episodi
  • Disney: The Renaissance and the Empire

    Disney: The Renaissance and the Empire
    Aug 10 2026

    In 1984, the Walt Disney Company was worth more dead than alive. Disney Animation — the heart of Walt's famous flywheel — had stagnated for years, bleeding away talent while corporate raiders circled, salivating over offers to sell off the film library to MGM and offload the parks to hotel operators. But what followed instead was the greatest turnaround in media history under Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Beauty and the Beast. The Lion King. Broadway. Bringing the Disney Vault home on VHS and DVD. And the greatest media acquisition of all time — ESPN.

    And then... it all almost fell apart. Again. Euro Disney turned into a money pit. Boardroom and executive infighting ran rampant. Animation descended into a dumpster fire. (Remember Chicken Little? Us neither.) Comcast — Comcast!! — tried to steal the company via a hostile takeover. Out of the chaos, a new generation of Disney management emerged under Bob Iger to stage yet another epic comeback with Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, creating the defining media empire of the 21st century…until the tech companies came along. Tune in for the ultimate Acquired thrill ride: Disney, Part II.

    Sponsors:

    Many thanks to our fantastic Fall '26 Season partners:

    • Sierra
    • Sentry
    • WorkOS
    • Anthropic

    Links:

    • Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!
    • The Official Acquired Meetup on Sept 17th with our friends at Sentry. Join us!
    • The Acquired Disney Part II Companion PDF
    • Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney Study
    • All episode sources

    Carve Outs:

    • Warby Parker Transitions Extra Active
    • Michael Arndt's Toy Story 3 Story Presentation
    • The Golden State Valkyries

    More Acquired:

    • Get email updates and vote on future episodes!
    • Join the Slack
    • Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

    00:00:00 Start
    00:00:50 Intro
    00:05:07 Disney in Chaos (1984)
    00:11:33 Eisner, Wells, Katzenberg Arrive (1984)
    00:24:30 Animation Renaissance & CAPS Tech (1989)
    00:37:33 Flywheel Extensions: Home Video, Retail & Broadway
    00:54:32 Challenges & ABC/ESPN Acquisition (1994-1995)
    01:05:55 ESPN: Disney's Accidental Goldmine
    01:21:26 Eisner's Decline & Save Disney Campaign (2001-2004)
    01:34:53 Comcast Hostile Takeover Bid (2004)
    01:41:58 Bob Iger's Vision & Pixar Acquisition (2005-2006)
    01:52:17 Pixar: From Lucasfilm to Steve Jobs (1979-1995)
    02:03:11 Toy Story, IPO & Eisner Conflict (1995)
    02:34:30 Disney Acquires Pixar (2006)
    02:46:37 Marvel & Lucasfilm Acquisitions (2009-2012)
    02:58:01 Streaming Pivot: Cord Cutting & BAMTech (2015)
    03:06:30 The Disney+ Strategy & FOX Acquisition (2017-2019)
    03:19:01 The Disney+ Launch, COVID, & Chapek's Tenure (2019-2022)
    03:42:15 Iger's Return, Challenges & Parks Revival (2022-2026)
    03:50:54 The Business Today: Parks & Streaming Focus
    03:59:22 Analysis: Disney+ Strategy & The New Media Landscape
    04:10:01 Analysis: Bull/Bear Cases
    04:21:20 Quintessence
    04:24:39 Carve-Outs + Outro

    ‍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.
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    4 ore e 33 min
  • The Walt Disney Company

    The Walt Disney Company
    Jun 22 2026
    The Walt Disney Company is the most successful enterprise ever created for monetizing human nostalgia. Today it’s the king of global entertainment, holding the intellectual property rights to the childhood memories of billions of people (including, likely, all of you) and is a reliable, predictable profitable business. But it didn’t start that way.During Walt’s era, Disney operated like an unhinged moonshot factory, blowing its finances on one seemingly crazy project after another, like the very first feature-length animated film or a theme park inspired by Walt's fascination with model trains (spoiler: Disneyland). Walt’s relentless ambition to bet the company over and over again not only created some of the most monumental artistic achievements of the 20th century (Snow White, Fantasia, Disney Imagineering), but also resulted in the accidental invention of the modern “flywheel” business model. In this episode, we tell the story of the ultimate marriage of art, commerce, and engineering — The Walt Disney Company: Walt's Era.Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners:J.P. MorganWeAreDevelopers eventVercelServiceNowStatsigLinks:Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!The Acquired Disney Companion PDFOur Disney column in WSJThe original 1958 WSJ “Flywheel” article"Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal GablerThe Animated Man by Michael BarrierWalt Disney: An American Original by Bob ThomasBuilding a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empires by Bob ThomasThe Disney Version by Richard SchickelPBS American Experience: Walt DisneyDisneyland HandcraftedWalt's 1966 EPCOT pitch videoWorldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney StudyThe Walt Disney Family MuseumAll episode sourcesCarve Outs:Brooks Vanguard sneakersDefunctland YouTube ChannelAnimagraffs YouTube ChannelVolvo EX30The San Francisco SymphonyMore Acquired:Get email updates and vote on future episodes!Join the SlackCheck out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!00:00 Start01:10 Intro06:03 Walt's Early Life & Artistic Calling (1901-1919)12:22 From Commercial Art to Laugh-o-grams (1919-1923)23:05 Hollywood, The Alice Comedies & Oswald's Loss (1923-1928)43:27 Mickey Mouse & The Synchronized Sound Breakthrough (1928)01:01:21 The IP Flywheel & Mickey Merch Explosion (1929-1933)01:09:57 Flywheel Terminology Unpacked01:18:53 Snow White: Walt's $1.5M Folly (1934-1937)01:52:01 The Burbank Studio, Debt & Strike (1938-1941)02:04:28 The Animators' Strike & Walt's Disillusionment (1941)02:15:43 WWII, The Vault & Creative Slump (1941-1950)02:24:27 Post-War Slump to Cinderella's Comeback (1945-1950)02:33:48 Walt's Obsession: Model Trains to Disneyland (1950-1952)02:38:44 Financing Disneyland: ABC, SRI & Davy Crockett (1953-1955)03:17:05 Disneyland's Grand Opening & The Evolving Flywheel (1955-1958)03:41:55 The Florida Project & Walt's Last Dream (1961-1966)03:54:26 Walt's Untimely Death & Roy's Legacy (1966-1971)03:57:57 Roy Finishes Walt Disney World (1966-1971)04:01:09 The Post-Walt Slump & Corporate Raiders (1970s-1984)04:09:44 Analysis: Why No Other Disney Flywheels?04:17:15 7 Powers04:20:45 Quintessence04:23:50 Carve-Outs + Outro‍Note: 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.
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    4 ore e 31 min
  • Vanguard

    Vanguard
    May 18 2026
    Vanguard is the most effective vehicle ever created for participating in the fruits of American capitalism. Today it’s the single largest equity owner of the majority of corporations in the S&P 500, on behalf of 50 million clients (including, likely, many of you). And yet Vanguard itself is essentially a communist organization — it has no shareholders, makes no profits, and operates more like REI than Fidelity. If you own a Vanguard fund, you own a piece of the firm itself. Any excess margin instead gets returned to clients in the form of lower fees, which since 1975 have added up to roughly five hundred billion dollars transferred out of Wall Street managers’ pockets and into retail investors’ savings accounts. And oh yeah, it all started as a cockamamie revenge plot by a guy who’d just been fired by his partners. Today we tell the story of communist capitalism at its finest — Vanguard.Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners:J.P. MorganWeAreDevelopers eventServiceNowVercelStatsigLinks:This episode's PDF companionSign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!Our Vanguard "episode preview" in WSJStay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution by John C. BogleThe Bogle Effect by Eric BalchunasWorldly Partners' Multi-Decade Vanguard StudyWorldly Partners' Article Generational Investing: The Discipline Behind 100+x OutcomesAll episode sourcesCarve Outs:Our WSJ pieces on Ferrari and VanguardMacBook Pro M5 MaxMichael MacKelvie on YouTubeThe Super Mario Galaxy MovieBrooks Vanguard sneakersMore Acquired:Get email updates and vote on future episodes!Join the SlackCheck out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!00:00:00 Start00:00:41 Intro00:05:30 Jack Bogle's Early Life & Family Ruin (1929)00:12:34 Princeton Thesis & Mutual Funds Emerge (1949-1951)00:27:20 Joining Wellington Management (1951)00:30:38 The Go-Go Years & Fidelity's Ascent (1958-1965)00:40:36 Jack Takes the Reins & The Ivest Merger (1965)00:46:04 The Go-Go Bust & Jack's Crisis of Conscience (1970-1973)00:53:28 Jack is Fired: The Genesis of Vanguard (1974)01:13:03 The Journal Article That Inspired It All (1974-1976)01:35:02 Building the Fund & Early Struggles (1976-1981)01:44:32 The Rise of Indexing & Vanguard's Growth (1988-1992)01:49:06 Jack's Health & The CEO Transition (1995-1996)02:00:06 The ETF Debate & Jack's Second Firing (1999)02:24:18 The 2008 Financial Crisis: Vanguard's Moment02:30:46 The Warren Buffett Bet (2008-2019)02:41:28 Fidelity & BlackRock's Resurgence (Post-2008)02:52:04 Salim Ramji: Vanguard's First Outside CEO03:04:43 Wellington's Comeback & Mutual Ownership03:08:23 Analysis03:30:58 Quintessence03:39:35 Carve-Outs + Outro‍Note: 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.
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    3 ore e 48 min
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