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 Statsig Links: 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 sources Carve Outs: Ford v Ferrari Maison Wheat sweaters Craighill scissors Amazon grocery service Travelpro Altitude backpack 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 00:01:08 Intro 00:06:11 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 Branding 00:35:41 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 Range 03:07:16 Ferrari Luce: The EV Future with Jony Ive 03:12:37 Ferrari Today by the Numbers 03:29:39 Analysis 03:50:04 Carve-Outs + Thank Yous ‍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.

Formula 1 is three competitions in one: a 200mph battle of the world's best race car drivers, the world cup of engineering where thousand-person teams spend hundreds of millions designing cars from scratch, and — as one of our listeners perfectly put it — the “Real Housewives of the Garage”, a soap opera of billionaire egos, team politics, and paddock drama that makes for incredible reality television. It's also the world's most popular annual sporting series with over 827 million fans globally — a fact that would shock most Americans, who until a recent viral Netflix series had barely heard of it. Today we tell the story of how a chaotic, deadly, and gloriously dysfunctional European racing series became one of the greatest business stories in sports. For decades, brilliant engineers and daredevil drivers dedicated their lives (and too often lost them) to a league controlled for 45 years by a single man: a former London car dealer named Bernie Ecclestone, who centralized power and extracted billions, while also undeniably single-handedly making the sport successful. Then, in a move no one saw coming, the American company Liberty Media bought the whole thing in 2017, installed a team of Fox Sports and ESPN veterans, and did what Bernie never would — professionalized it. All of a sudden famously money-losing F1 teams turned into real businesses, with the average team valuation today clocking in at an astounding $3.6 billion. Buckle up for one of our most-requested episodes: the wild story of Formula 1. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments ServiceNow Vercel Statsig Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg Drive to Survive on Netflix F1 The Movie on Apple TV Adrian Newey, How to Build a Car Senna documentary Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Formula One Study All episode sources Carve Outs: Cirque du Soleil Echo Super Bowl LX Mic'd Up Tonal Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch Daloopa for historical financial data More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:37 Intro 00:05:52 Origins of F1: Britain, Italy, and Monaco 00:30:43 Bernie's Entrance 00:37:42 Bernie Consolidates Power 00:50:33 F1 as a Global TV Sport (Except America) 01:08:08 F1's Incredible Engineering Achievements 01:19:34 Senna's Crash and a New Era for Safety 01:33:18 The Many Owners of F1, and Bernie's Liquidity Drama 01:57:48 FOTA: The attempted breakaway series 02:05:07 RedBull, Mercedes, and Reinventing the Sport 02:42:33 Liberty Media buys F1 and Brings it to the Modern Era 03:05:03 Drive to Survive 03:26:45 Apple, TV Rights, and Success in America 03:41:52 F1: The Business Today 03:56:23 Analysis: Why Did F1 Work… and Was Bernie Necessary? 04:05:40 7 Powers 04:08:23 Bear vs. Bull Cases 04:16:32 Quintessence 04:20:08 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.

The NFL is nearly synonymous with America today. Practically nothing is more quintessentially and universally American than tuning in every Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday… and sometimes Saturdays and holidays too) to watch the world’s most beautiful ballet of violence. It generates the most revenue of any sports league globally and sets new records for team valuations each year. But it wasn’t always this way. The history of the NFL mirrors America’s own development: scrappy small-town teams rode the successive growth waves of the automobile, TV, the Internet and social media to grow larger than the even the founders’ wildest dreams. Whether you watch football or not, the NFL is one incredible business story, and one that we’ve taken more lessons from over the years for Acquired itself than perhaps any other episode we’ve made. Note: This is a remastered release of our original January 2023 episode, updated to today's Acquired production standards. It also features a full hour+ followup section at the end covering the seismic shifts in the NFL’s business since the original episode’s release. Much has happened in those three years: Taylor Swift entered the league (via merger 🙂), streaming went mainstream (and took over Thanksgiving and Christmas), sports gambling exploded from 46 million to 76 million bettors, and — in perhaps the most surprising development — private equity finally stormed the gates of the NFL. Oh, and average franchise valuations grew by 60% from $4.5 billion to over $7 billion. Communist capitalism is alive and well! We're also releasing this episode in advance of Super Bowl LX here in San Francisco, where Acquired is hosting the NFL’s inaugural Super Bowl Innovation Summit! Sponsors: Many thanks to our partners: Vanta Sierra Crusoe Sentry (+ join the list for Sentry & Vercel’s Super Bowl Fan Zone party) Links: Innovation Summit details and all Super Bowl LX Week events in San Francisco (note content from the Innovation Summit will be posted publicly the week after the Super Bowl — we’ll update this page with links when available) America’s Game Sports Illustrated’s oral history of the famous Joe Namath “pool photo” All episode sources Carve Outs: The Menu Peyton’s Places More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:37 Intro - Welcome to the Remastered NFL Episode 00:06:05 Origins of Football & the Forward Pass (1869-1905) 00:14:34 The Founding of the NFL (1920) 00:41:52 Bert Bell's "Any Given Sunday" Philosophy (1946) 01:03:28 Pete Rozelle Transforms the League (1960) 01:56:34 The Creation of the Super Bowl (1966) 02:09:47 Monday Night Football Invents Modern Sports TV (1970) 02:37:19 The NFL's Business Model Explained 02:39:28 CTE & the Kaepernick Controversy (2016) 02:48:36 Analysis: Playbook & 7 Powers Analysis 03:21:04 2026 UPDATE: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Streaming, T-Swift, Gambling & New TV Deals 03:57:11 Private Equity Enters the NFL (2024) 04:14:08 Conclusion & Thank Yous ‍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.

Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usually don’t have guests or video. Hardly the standard-issue playbook for podcasting success! And yet well over a million smart, curious and exceedingly busy humans share their (your!) valuable time with us every month. Why? This is the exact paradox that has been rolling around in the head of Michael Lewis (yes, that Michael Lewis) since he found the show earlier this year. So we asked Michael to be our guest "interlocutor" and share what he thinks is going on here, while we share ten lessons we've stolen (graciously) from companies we've studied and brought into Acquired itself. He takes us through the entire Acquired journey: how we started, why we've never hired anyone or raised money, how we pick episodes, what our business model actually is, why we focus on quality and enjoyment over maximizing enterprise value, and ultimately why we’re all — you, him, us — kindred spirits together. Oh, and just for fun, we recorded this episode where another special journey began — the garage where Google was founded. Thank you for an incredible decade together… here's to the next one! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments (you can watch our full show with them at AWS re:Invent here!) WorkOS Sentry Shopify Thank-yous: First, to Google for loaning us the garage. The sawhorse table desk, PC and CRT monitor on display in the background were all Google originals courtesy of the Google Founders Collection at the Computer History Museum. So cool! Second, to our friends at Shep Films for helping us seriously up our game on production quality this episode! Our Favorite Michael Lewis Books: Home Game Moneyball Liar’s Poker The Blind Side The Undoing Project (as referenced by Michael in the beginning, about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky) Carve Outs: Books:  The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Science, the Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by Duff McDonald The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner Morris Chang's Autobiography Podcasts:  Against the Rules Revisionist History SmartLess The Daily The Bill Simmons Podcast Graham Duncan on Invest Like the Best Glue Guys Video:  Jay Kelly The Rehearsal Doug DeMuro Tires F1 The Movie Andor Fallout Severance Silo Video Games:  Sea of Stars Kirby and the Forgotten Land Products:  ARTEZA Rollerball Pen 0.7mm Fine Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil Fujifilm X100VI Uniqlo Socks! On Running Shoes Rimowa Luggage Parenting:  Guided Access on iPad Toy Story SlumberPod Bluey Experience in NYC More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍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.

Coca-Cola is… sugar water. And somehow it’s also America, Christmas, summertime, friendship and happiness. Today we tell the story of how The Coca-Cola Company amazingly transmogrified a beverage into emotion in all of our collective psyches, and ALSO built one of the most incredible scale economy businesses of all-time. And oh yeah, there’s also cocaine, WW2, Mad Men, Warren Buffett, James Dean, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Ovitz, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, McDonald’s and Monsanto. So cozy up to the fire with your favorite images of Santa Claus and Polar Bears and enjoy an ice-cold episode of Acquired — always delicious, always refreshing. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments WorkOS Shopify Sentry — Link to ACQ Cassette Players, use code “audiophile” Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! The Hilltop ad / Mad Men finale Pepsi Challenge commercials Pepsi’s Michael Jackson commercials Coke’s Bill Cosby commercials Two liter bottles inflating Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Coca-Cola Study For God, Country, and Coca-Cola Secret Formula All episode sources Carve Outs: SkiErg Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Claude Nike Vomero Plus Hermanos Gutiérrez More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍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.

Trader Joe's breaks every rule of modern retail. They don't do e-commerce. They don't do delivery. No sales, coupons, or loyalty programs. They only stock 4,000 SKUs versus 50,000+ at normal supermarkets. Their parking lots are famously terrible and they're constantly out of your favorite items. Shoppers brave long lines and cramped aisles while overly-friendly employees in Hawaiian shirts try to chat them up. Everything about the Trader Joe's experience seems designed to drive modern consumers away. And yet they generate $2,000+ per square foot in sales — double their nearest competitor in Whole Foods and nearly 4x the industry average — and Americans are obsessed with them. How on earth did a company that so steadfastly refuses to participate in the 21st century build the most beloved grocery chain in America? Today we tell the full story: how “Trader” Joe Coulombe started out cloning 7-Elevens in 1960s Los Angeles, pivoted to slinging hard liquor, discovered the enormous market opportunities for California wine and health food before anyone else, and ultimately built perhaps the most counter-positioned business we’ve ever studied on Acquired by doing almost everything differently than the supermarket-CPG industrial complex. Tune in for a wild voyage on the high seas of grocery retail! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments (And come see us at AWS re:Invent! Discount code: "ACQUIRED") Sentry WorkOS Shopify Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Trader Joe’s Study Becoming Trader Joe The Secret Life of Groceries Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's All episode sources Carve Outs: AirPods Pro 3 Mario Kart 8 More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍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.

Google faces the greatest innovator's dilemma in history. They invented the Transformer — the breakthrough technology powering every modern AI system from ChatGPT to Claude (and, of course, Gemini). They employed nearly all the top AI talent: Ilya Sutskever, Geoff Hinton, Demis Hassabis, Dario Amodei — more or less everyone who leads modern AI worked at Google circa 2014. They built the best dedicated AI infrastructure (TPUs!) and deployed AI at massive scale years before anyone else. And yet... the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 caught them completely flat-footed. How on earth did the greatest business in history wind up playing catch-up to a nonprofit-turned-startup? Today we tell the complete story of Google's 20+ year AI journey: from their first tiny language model in 2001 through the creation Google Brain, the birth of the transformer, the talent exodus to OpenAI (sparked by Elon Musk's fury over Google’s DeepMind acquisition), and their current all-hands-on-deck response with Gemini. And oh yeah — a little business called Waymo that went from crazy moonshot idea to doing more rides than Lyft in San Francisco, potentially building another Google-sized business within Google. This is the story of how the world's greatest business faces its greatest test: can they disrupt themselves without losing their $140B annual profit-generating machine in Search? Sponsors: WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25 Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25 Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! Geoff Hinton’s 2007 Tech Talk at Google Our recent ACQ2 episode with Tobi Lutke Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study In the Plex Supremecy Genius Makers All episode sources Carve Outs: We’re hosting the Super Bowl Innovation Summit! F1: The Movie Travelpro suitcases Glue Guys Podcast Sea of Stars Stepchange Podcast More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Merch Store! © Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC ‍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.

It’s finally here! Today we are releasing Acquired’s first “concert film” — the full video recording of our Radio City live show from this summer with Jamie Dimon, Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, Barry Diller, and cameos from around the Acquired Cinematic Universe including Christina Cacioppo, Ben Clymer, and Howard Schultz. To watch the full production on any device, please head over to Spotify where you’ll find it available for free in the Acquired feed right alongside all our other episodes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/77Kl3BsiEQLpli2Q2ozZuf?si=4f4609e343504fd0 Sponsors: Live Show Presented By: J.P. Morgan Shopify ServiceNow More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍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.

A few weeks ago, we told you that Acquired is doing something in New York City on July 15 with our good friends at J.P. Morgan Payments. Well, the big announcement is finally here: We are doing our 2025 Live Show…  at Radio City Music Hall! Radio City is of course the iconic New York City theater that hosts the Rockettes and the Tony Awards, and has hosted the Grammys, the MTV VMAs, and the NFL Draft. And it’s also a storied part of Rockefeller Center, as chronicled on our Standard Oil episodes. We can't think of anything more "Acquired". If you want to be part of the ticket pre-sale, you can sign up at acquired.fm/nyc. While Radio City is the world's largest indoor theater (with room for 6,000 Acquired fans), more than 6,000 folks came to last year's Chase Center show! So get cracking on figuring out which friends and co-workers you want to go with (seats are assigned), and get your hotel + plane tickets booked! Tickets will be available in $100 and $200 tiers. This is — without a doubt — the biggest undertaking we've ever done here at Acquired. In true Broadway fashion, we’re keeping the show details under wraps… but trust us, it'll be an evening of surprise and delight. If your idea of fun is the world’s greatest business and technology nerds gathering together for a night on the big stage, this is for you. Oh, and a huge thank you to all our friends at J.P. Morgan for making this possible. We can't wait to see you there! Sign up for ticket pre-sale: https://acquired.fm/nyc