Acquired
Disney, Plus
Every company has a story.
Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.
Show Notes
The Flywheel is strong with this one. We dive deep into the origins of one of the boldest business strategy decisions of our time: Disney CEO Bob Iger’s attempt to buck the Innovator’s Dilemma - and forego billions of dollars in cashflow from Netflix and pay TV providers - in order to establish a direct distribution relationship with its customers for the first time in the company’s history. Is this the force awakening within the house that Walt built, or a phantom menace that will drag Disney to the dark side of unprofitability? Tune in to find out!
Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
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
Links:
The Disney flywheel: https://kottke.org/15/06/walt-disneys-corporate-strategy-chart
Sources:
The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger: https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company-ebook/dp/B07PF6XTD8
Carveouts:
David: The Ride of a Lifetime
Ben: The Imagineering Story on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-imagineering-story/6ryoXv1e1rWW
This episode is not processed yet. Sign in to queue the transcript and make it useful for search and Q&A.
Sign in to queue transcript (1 credit)
Free to start
Skim the episode first,
Skim the episode first,
then decide if it is worth listening.
Sign up with Google in one click. 10 transcript credits included. No card needed.
Google sign-in · No credit card · 10 free transcript credits