WhatsApp
Acquired29 Tammi 2020

WhatsApp

We kick off Season 6 with a long-awaited Acquired Classic: Facebook’s $22B purchase of WhatsApp in 2014, which still ranks as the largest acquisition of a private VC-backed startup in history. Yet despite that enormous pricetag and all its associated fanfare, as we sit here 5+ years later WhatsApp actually generates LESS revenue than the meager ~$20m it was bringing in at the time of acquisition. Was this this worst acquisition of all-time, or a brilliant strategic chess move by Mark Zuckerberg & co? Tune in as we render Acquired’s judgement!

Note: Unfortunately David’s audio quality in this episode was impacted by a technical glitch which we didn’t discover until after recording. Our editors worked super hard to fix in post-production, but it’s still not totally perfect. We hope you’ll give it a listen regardless, and we’re working on getting a transcript made ASAP, which we’ll post to the website when it’s ready. Thanks for bearing with us,

-Ben & David

Sponsors:


More Acquired!

© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC


Carve Outs:

Sources:

Jaksot(212)

The NFL (2026 Update)

The NFL (2026 Update)

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 an...

27 Tammi 4h 17min

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

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 st...

15 Joulu 20252h 47min

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

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...

24 Marras 20254h 4min

Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s

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 supermark...

27 Loka 20253h 28min

Google: The AI Company

Google: The AI Company

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). T...

6 Loka 20254h 6min

Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall (Presented by J.P. Morgan)

Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall (Presented by J.P. Morgan)

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 C...

1 Loka 20251min

Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet Inc.

In its first six years from 1998 to 2004, Google built one of the greatest products of all time (and certainly the greatest business of all time) with Search. Then in its next six years from 2005 to 2...

26 Elo 20254h 11min

The Jamie Dimon Interview

The Jamie Dimon Interview

We sit down with Jamie Dimon for a live conversation at Radio City Music Hall, covering the incredible journey from his 1998 firing at Citgroup (where he was widely expected to become CEO) to building...

16 Heinä 20251h 6min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
psykopodiaa-podcast
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
rss-draivi
rss-lahtijat
oppimisen-psykologia
rss-rahamania
rss-porssipuhetta
rss-seuraava-potilas
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
rss-inderes
rss-h-asselmoilanen
rss-bisnesta-bebeja
rss-paatos-podcast-suomen-kovimmat-paatoksentekijat-2
rss-paasipodi
rss-viisas-raha-podi
rss-sami-miettinen-neuvottelija
kasvun-kipuja
rss-bisnespaiva