Acquired
Oprah (Harpo Studios)
Every company has a story.
Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.
Show Notes
We close out Season 6 with the story of perhaps the single most successful media entrepreneur of all-time: Oprah Winfrey, and her juggernaut conglomerate Harpo Studios. Born to a poor single mother in the segregated 1950's deep south, Oprah's rise from terrible adversity to wealthiest Black woman in the world ranks among the very greatest American success stories. And oh yeah — along the way she single-handedly created the entire influencer economy, rewrote the blueprint of a modern power broker, and set the world record for most cars given away at one time (276). Sit back, listen and get ready to live your best life.
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
Survey link!: http://acquired.fm/survey
Carveouts:
David: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07959YG1R?
Ben: Reply All "Long Distance" https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nh3wk
Sources:
http://blackeconomics.co.uk/wp/oprahs-empire/
http://www.oprah.com/entertainment/the-oprah-winfrey-show-by-the-numbers-oprah-show-statistics/all
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Oprah-Shows-Most-Shocking-Moments_1
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