Acquired

The Home Depot's founding story is like an Avengers movie… if the Avengers got fired, went broke, and stacked empty paint cans ten feet high to look legitimate. After being unceremoniously fired from their previous hardware chain at ages 48 and 35, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank took the words of their New York banker Ken Langone (who had also just accidentally caused their firings) to heart: they'd just been "kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe.” They proceeded to author the greatest compounding story in American retail history, helped by some legendary cameos along the way from Sol Price, Jamie Dimon, and Ross Perot (to name a few). And the ending is as good as any superhero film: from its 1981 IPO to today, The Home Depot has been the single highest-returning equity in the entire US stock market — higher than Apple, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, and everything else!Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Fall '26 Season partners:- Sierra- WorkOS- Anthropic- SentryLinks:- 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 Home Depot Companion PDF- Our Visual Artifacts page for Home Depot- Built from Scratch by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank- Kick Up Some Dust by Bernie Marcus- The Board Wore Chicken Suits by Joe Nocera, The New York Times- Frank Blake on Invest Like the Best- Ken Langone's interview with Arvind Navaratnam- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Home Depot Study- All episode sourcesCarve Outs:- Silo Season 3- Tires Season 3- Ratio 8 Coffee Maker- Trade Coffee- Quarterback- ComedianMore 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 Start00:00:43 Intro00:05:32 Bernie Marcus's Early Career and meeting Arthur Blank (1972)00:15:58 Ken Langone & Handy Dan (1970s)00:33:08 Ken Buys Handy Dan, Bernie & Arthur Fired00:43:55 Ross Perot Almost Buys Home Depot00:51:20 Pat Farrah & The HomeCo Interlude01:05:03 First Stores & Early Model (1979)01:14:16 Home Depot Goes Public & Expands (1981)01:24:35 Home Depot's Unique Operating System01:46:01 Arthur Blank Takes CEO & Early Cracks (1997)01:56:07 The Bob Nardelli Era (2000-2007)02:12:09 Nardelli's Public Downfall & Firing (2006-2007)02:24:24 Frank Blake's Turnaround: Crisis & Culture (2007)02:42:30 E-commerce & Distribution Revolution02:59:57 Home Depot Today: Pro & DIY (2024)03:12:04 Analysis: The Paradox of Specialness03:16:18 7 Powers: Home Depot's Competitive Advantages03:19:17 Quintessence: Why It Got So Big03:26:27 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.

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- AnthropicLinks:- 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- The Acquired Disney Part II Artifacts visual hub- Our Disney Part II column in WSJ- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney Study- All episode sourcesCarve Outs:- Warby Parker Transitions Extra Active- Michael Arndt's Toy Story 3 Story Presentation- The Golden State ValkyriesMore 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 Start00:00:50 Intro00:05:07 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 & Broadway00:54:32 Challenges & ABC/ESPN Acquisition (1994-1995)01:05:55 ESPN: Disney's Accidental Goldmine01:21:26 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 Focus03:59:22 Analysis: Disney+ Strategy & The New Media Landscape04:10:01 Analysis: Bull/Bear Cases04:21:20 Quintessence04:24:39 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.

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. Morgan- WeAreDevelopers event- Vercel- ServiceNow- StatsigLinks:- Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!- The Acquired Disney Companion PDF- Our Disney column in WSJ- The original 1958 WSJ “Flywheel” article- Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler- The Animated Man by Michael Barrier- Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas- Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empires by Bob Thomas- The Disney Version by Richard Schickel- PBS American Experience: Walt Disney- Disneyland Handcrafted- Walt's 1966 EPCOT pitch video- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney Study- The Walt Disney Family Museum- All episode sourcesCarve Outs:- Brooks Vanguard sneakers- Defunctland YouTube Channel- Animagraffs YouTube Channel- Volvo EX30- The San Francisco SymphonyMore Acquired:- Get email updates and vote on future episodes!- Join the Slack- Check 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.

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. Morgan- WeAreDevelopers event- ServiceNow- Vercel- StatsigLinks:- This episode's PDF companion- Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!- Our Vanguard "episode preview" in WSJ- Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution by John C. Bogle- The Bogle Effect by Eric Balchunas- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Vanguard Study- Worldly Partners' Article Generational Investing: The Discipline Behind 100+x Outcomes- All episode sourcesCarve Outs:- Our WSJ pieces on Ferrari and Vanguard- MacBook Pro M5 Max- Michael MacKelvie on YouTube- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie- Brooks Vanguard sneakersMore 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 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.

Ferrari is the pinnacle of luxury scarcity — across its entire 79-year history, the company has sold just 330,000 cars at an average price today of $500,000. For context, Hermès sells that many Birkins and Kellys roughly every 2 years, and Rolex moves that many watches every 3 months. And yet this ultimate luxury product also lives under the same roof with a widely beloved professional sports team… one with 400 million rabid fans from all walks of life who live and die by the Scuderia’s performance every F1 race weekend! How is it possible that these two seemingly contradictory customer bases can coexist within the same company? And far from destroying each other’s value, only reinforce it? The answer, it turns out, is a beautiful, bloody, tragic and romantic opera that spans two families and three generations — and just might be one of the best tales we’ve ever told on Acquired. Buckle up for the story of Ferrari.Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners:- J.P. Morgan Payments- Vercel- ServiceNow- StatsigLinks:- Sign up for email updates, get out takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics!- Our Ferrari "episode preview" in WSJ- Enzo Ferrari by Luca Dal Monte- Seeing Red on IMDb- Go Like Hell by A.J. Baime- Stephen Wilmot's great WSJ piece on Ferrari- Ferrari factory tour- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Ferrari Study- All episode sourcesCarve Outs:- Ford v Ferrari- Maison Wheat sweaters- Craighill scissors- Amazon grocery service- Travelpro Altitude backpackMore 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 Start00:01:08 Intro00:06:11 Enzo Ferrari's Early Life & Tragedies (1898-1919)00:12:39 Scuderia Ferrari: Enzo's Racing Dream (1920-1933)00:25:08 The Prancing Horse & Ferrari's Branding00:35:41 First Ferrari Road Cars & Le Mans Victory (1947-1949)00:51:31 F1 & The Tragedies of Enzo's Life (1950s)01:14:03 Ford vs. Ferrari: The Le Mans Rivalry (1963-1966)01:21:24 Enzo Sells 50% to Fiat (1969)01:29:10 Luca di Montezemolo's Return to F1 Glory (1971-1976)01:52:40 Ferrari's "Pepsi Challenge" and how Luca rescued the company (1991)02:27:41 Post-IPO Ferrari: New Models & Growth (2015-Present)02:48:24 The FUV Purosangue & Model Range03:07:16 Ferrari Luce: The EV Future with Jony Ive03:12:37 Ferrari Today by the Numbers03:29:39 Analysis03:50:04 Carve-Outs + Thank Yous‍Note: 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.