Season 4, Episode 1: ESPN
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
4.7 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2019
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Booyah! Acquired, the worldwide leader in acquisitions and IPOs, kicks off Season 4 with a classic: ESPN. How did a failed former TV weatherman end up building the world’s most valuable media company on top of a dump (quite literally) in Bristol, Connecticut? We follow the incredible entrepreneurial journey from Getty Oil diversification strategy to Berkshire Hathaway home run to Disney crown jewel. This Is Awesome, Baby!!
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Links:
- ESPN’s first moments on air: https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2018/12/espn-remembers-lee-leonard/
- The Outsiders Book: https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint-ebook/dp/B009G1T74O/
Carve Outs:
- Ben: Numbers Geek with Steve Ballmer: The Basketball Box Score Mystery https://www.geekwire.com/2019/numbers-geek-steve-ballmer-basketball-box-score-mystery/
- David: Fast Company on Masa, “The most powerful person in Silicon Valley” https://www.fastcompany.com/90285552/the-most-powerful-person-in-silicon-valley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And to be completely honest, I'm Ben Gilman. of Acquired, the podcast about technology acquisitions and IPOs. |
| 0:24.4 | I'm Ben Gilbert. |
| 0:25.2 | I'm David Rosenthal, and we are your hosts. |
| 0:28.2 | Today we are covering a company that is absolutely synonymous with sports. |
| 0:32.7 | E-SPN. |
| 0:33.8 | The worldwide leader. |
| 0:34.8 | Indeed, and as they say in the very first moments of their 1979 |
| 0:38.6 | broadcast, if you're a fan, if you're a fan, what you'll see in the next minutes, hours, and days to follow may |
| 0:46.0 | convince you you've gone to sports heaven. |
| 0:49.4 | Indeed, required it has gone to Sports7 here. |
| 0:53.0 | It was obligatory. |
| 0:55.0 | For a long time listeners to the show, you know that we cover, you know, typically one acquisition |
| 0:59.7 | and that we talk about it and we grade it and we have a pre-standard format. |
| 1:03.3 | This episode covers not one acquisition but three, each one sort of fairly monumental. |
| 1:09.7 | And I want to outline what that's going to be so that the story has a little bit of structure to it. |
| 1:13.4 | As I mentioned the first broadcast was in 79. E-S-P-N was acquired by ABC in 1984. |
| 1:21.6 | Just one year later in a surprising turn of events the smaller capital cities |
| 1:26.1 | Broadcasting Corporation incredibly bought ABC took its name and got ESPN along with it. |
| 1:32.8 | And then finally in 1996, 95 96, |
| 1:36.9 | there was a $19 billion buyout of ABC by the one and only Disney. |
| 1:44.0 | And a little teaser, the capital city's acquisition |
| 1:47.4 | had a little help on the way from a certain oracle in Omaha. |
... |
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