Business Wars (Ad Free): Recent Episodes
Wondery
Netflix vs. HBO. Nike vs. Adidas. Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet, or your attention. Sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy. The outcome of these battles shapes what we buy and how we live. Business Wars gives you the unauthorized, real story of what drives these companies and their leaders, inventors, investors and executives to new heights -- or to ruin. Hosted by David Brown, former anchor of Marketplace. From Wondery, the network behind Dirty John and American History Tellers.
It’s the 1960s and as Americans flee cities for the suburbs, Macy’s and Gimbels face tough choices. How do they compete with the rise of discount retailers and the exciting new shopping palaces known as malls? Weakened by industry disruption, both stores become vulnerable to the new wave of financial tactics — takeovers and leveraged buyouts. One store’s fateful decision during this transition period will end with it closing its doors forever.
In the late 1930s Gimbels makes a risky bet by stockpiling goods likely to be scarce in wartime. They also snap up their rival’s star copywriter, who does the best work of her career at their shop. Their savvy planning and advertising strength position them well for the post-war period, when Americans open their wallets wide. But the lifting of Depression era regulations governing retail leads to a series of price wars between all the department stores. None is as extreme as the one between Macy’s and Gimbels, which ends in mayhem, and sometimes, violence. The price wars force Macy’s to choose between honoring a sacred, century-old discount policy, or risk ending the year in the red for the first time in company history.
It’s the 1920s and wealthy flappers and captains of industry have money to burn for raccoon coats and monogrammed sterling silver hip flasks. Gimbels makes a risky acquisition of Saks Fifth Avenue, that ends up floating Gimbels through hard times and family tragedy during the Depression. Macy’s counters Gimbels’ strategic expansion by hiring a brilliant young copywriter, one of the first female advertising executives, and entering the new industry of radio broadcasting to advertise to the masses.
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National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
Crisis Text Line: Within the US, text HOME to 741741
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: 1-800-826-3632
It’s nearing the turn of the 19th century, and the Straus Brothers now run Macy’s emporium out of a dozen cobbled together stores in lower Manhattan. The next generation of Straus’s pressure the old guard to build a huge new Macy’s flagship on 34th street, in the still seedy red light district of Herald Square. It will take some persuading. And by the time the new venture reaps its reward, the family will be famous for a new reason; the heroism of one of the store’s founding fathers and his wife on the fateful voyage of the Titanic.
Gimbels now has mammoth enterprises in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and one of Adam’s sons also has greater ambitions. He urges the Gimbel elders to ride the wave of Macy’s high profile and build an even bigger store right on the rival’s doorstep. And when they balk, he comes up with a dastardly plan.
As R.H. Macy’s Manhattan emporium and reputation grow during the Civil War, his teenage son rebels and runs away to join the Union army. When the boy goes AWOL, the future of Macy’s burgeoning department store faces jeopardy. But salvation arrives in the form of another recent immigrant from war-torn Germany, Lazarus Straus. His family will lead Macy’s into the next century and a golden age of the department store.
But Adam Gimbel has been busy in Indiana; he now has a prosperous business and 11 children. His seven sons spur their father on to open a bigger and better store in booming Milwaukee. Their ambition and Macy’s growing fame in New York will soon lure the Gimbel Brothers east to challenge him on his home turf.
It's the mid 1800s and two very different young men set out in the world to make their fortunes. A young boy from Nantucket spends four years at sea on a whaling ship, the other becomes an itinerant peddler in the wilds of Indiana. These two adventurers, R.H. Macy and Adam Gimbel, eventually settle down as merchants, and open their own dry goods stores. They don’t know each other yet, but, as they each grow their businesses, they inadvertently create what we now know as the department store.
In the midst of their heated negotiations over the price of raisins, the CEO of Sun-Maid and the head of the Raisin Bargaining Association face off, each making their pitch about the state of the raisin industry and the road forward. It is the first time the two men have been able to appeal directly to the farmers themselves. Whether the farmers decide to follow Sun-Maid’s plan for a lower price for their raisins but a healthier market overall, or stand by the R.B.A. and a higher pricer for raisins, will shape the market for the decades to come.
Facing a shrinking raisin market, Sun-Maid hires a new CEO with a mandate to make raisins popular with Millennials. He believes part of the reason consumers are spurning raisins is the price and is set on Sun-Maid paying less money to farmers. This puts him on a collision course with the old school raisin grower who is heading up the Raisin Bargaining Association. With many farmers struggling to make ends meet, the R.B.A. is determined to get the highest price for raisins ever. As the two men clash, tensions escalate to the point of death threats.
The humble raisin: it’s hard to imagine that dried grapes are at the center of one of the longest running business wars in the United States. But with almost all of the country’s raisins coming from a small area in California’s Central Valley, it is a brutal and cutthroat industry.
In the early 20th century a few wealthy raisin growers decided to form a collective called Sun-Maid. After the government mandated that 85% of growers join the collective, Sun-Maid executives used violence and intimidation to get farmers to join. The farmers who held out had little bargaining power and were forced to accept lower prices. But in the 1960s, the independent farmers banded together to fight back. They founded the Raisin Bargaining Association to negotiate higher prices, setting off a power struggle that would last for decades.
It’s a new century and Hershey’s facing unexpected trouble at home — a showdown between the company and its biggest shareholder that threatens its independence.
Meanwhile, Mars is on a mission to become the world’s candy king. And with Hershey yet to break ground outside the U.S., the opportunity to catch up is fading fast.
Hershey knows there’s one move that could transform its overseas fortunes: a merger with its British soulmate Cadbury. The question is can it secure Cadbury’s hand in marriage before Mars triumphs in its quest for global chocolate domination.
It’s the late 1970s and Mars is America’s top confectioner. But Hershey is hungry for a comeback. It’s plotting a return to the top powered by a rush of new candies it hopes can nibble away at Mars’ market share.
Not that Mars has any intention of surrendering pole position without a fight. It thinks it can stop Hershey in its tracks by focusing exclusively on best-selling brands like Snickers, M&M’s and Milky Way.
But what neither company knows is that a tempting opportunity from Hollywood is about to disrupt the balance of power in candy land.
It’s 1965 and Forrest Mars has just become the manufacturer of Snickers and M&M’s. He is now – at last – ready to duke it out with Hershey in a battle to become the number one candy maker in America.
And he knows Hershey is far from prepared for his sudden switch from ally to enemy. Hershey is a company wedded to tradition. It has no marketing department, doesn’t advertise, and has a completely complacent sales team.
The question is: can Hershey shake off its docile ways in time to stop Forrest’s relentless advance?
It’s the 1940s and Forrest Mars’ plan to create a candy empire is stepping up a gear. He’s plotting to seize control of his dad’s company Mars and turn it into a Hershey killer.
First he needs to get his new candy venture off the ground. But to do that he needs help. Help from Hershey.
But while Forrest’s laying plans, Hershey’s trying to get over the death of founder Milton Hershey and grappling with an unexpected opportunity to become a global player.
It’s 1886 and in New York City, a young confectioner called Milton Hershey is desperately trying to save his business.
He’s been struggling for years. He founded his first candy business in Philadelphia, only to watch it collapse. His second venture lasted just weeks. Now, he’s loaded up with debts he cannot pay.
But he’s about to get a visit from a man who will change his fortunes forever, paving the way for him to introduce America to the joys of milk chocolate… and build a sweets-fueled empire.
It’s June 2018. Mark Zuckerberg is struggling and morale at the social media giant is low. Facebook has been battered by data breaches and there’s no end in sight. Meanwhile, Evan Spiegel has a chance to turn Snapchat around by refocusing on the teens who’ve abandoned Facebook.
As Snapchat unveils new features, the startup begins its next battle: To become profitable. And in order to stay the course, Zuckerberg must earn back the trust of Facebook’s users — and regulators who want to break it up.
It’s April 2017, and Mark Zuckerberg is issuing a new challenge to Snapchat. By making its face filters open source, the tech giant is coming directly for Snapchat's most popular feature. But founder Evan Spiegel has other things to worry about: Snapchat is hemorrhaging users, and its share price is plummeting.
But when the Cambridge Analytica scandal breaks, Facebook's most pressing battle moves to the court of public opinion
It's September 2015 and Snapchat has just hit on a game-changer for the young company: filters that augment users' faces. Thanks to some celebrity love, the new feature becomes wildly popular. But Mark Zuckerberg is watching closely, and acquires a competing startup.
Then, Zuckerberg switches up his strategy. His new philosophy: Don't be too proud to copy. Unfortunately for Spiegel and Murphy, this is going to have devastating consequences.
It’s November 2013, and Mark Zuckerberg is about to make Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy an offer he thinks they can't refuse. But when Spiegel and Murphy do the unimaginable, it prompts Facebook to compete — by copying.
Snapchat is gathering steam, but data leaks are hurting the company's credibility and Spiegel's reputation. To survive, they're going to have to do the hardest thing for a startup — grow up.
It's the new millennium and Mark Zuckerberg is bored in high school. He's a prodigious student so smart he's already taking graduate level coding classes at Mercy College. Soon, he's going to build a product that will change the Internet forever. Now he just has to graduate high school.
Evan Spiegel, meanwhile, grows up rich and spoiled. He parties his way through high school and lands in a fraternity at Stanford. But things are about to get serious for Spiegel as Zuckerberg reaches out.
It’s April 2011, and Evan Spiegel is about to present his class project. Right now, it's called Picaboo. Soon, it's going to become Snapchat. But for Spiegel, this is more important than grades--at stake are potential investors and the future of communication as we know it.
Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, is sitting on the world's biggest social networking site, boasting 500 million users. But he knows his success depends on staying relevant. To do so, he's going to have to compete with Snapchat.
World Wrestling Entertainment is the dominant name in professional wrestling but new promotions are now challenging the WWE’s dominance. We conclude our series on WWF vs WCW with David Shoemaker, author of The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling. Shoemaker joins us to talk about whether or not these new companies can take on the Vince McMahon behemoth and what it means to be the best professional wrestler in the world.
It’s 1998 and the slugfest between Vince McMahon’s WWF and Ted Turner’s WCW is reaching a critical juncture.
McMahon’s on a mission to pull wrestling fans back to his TV shows with a strategy focused on maximum controversy. And to help him in his mission, he’s getting back-up from a high-flying TV executive and a bunch of Wall Street bankers.
WCW chief Eric Bischoff is determined to stop WWF’s comeback at all costs. But he’ll soon discover that his most dangerous enemy isn’t McMahon — it’s the executives on his own team.
It’s 1996 and with Monday Nitro topping the TV ratings, WCW is out to end WWF’s time as the biggest player in the wrestling business.
It’s plotting to establish two brands: one that WCW boss Eric Bischoff hopes can suck away WWF’s family audience, another that will seek to capture the young males who crave more violent and outrageous entertainment than the WWF offers.
But Vince McMahon has a plan of his own. He’s going to push the WWF in a new direction by embracing controversy. But it’s a strategy that will put him on a collision course with the cable network the WWF depends on for its survival.
It’s 1995 and the Monday Night Wars are underway. WCW’s new show Monday Nitro is grappling with the WWF’s Monday Night Raw to win TV viewers’ attention.
WCW isn’t pulling its punches either. Under the command of Eric Bischoff, WCW is dropping spoiler bombs, luring away WWF’s top wrestlers and trashing the WWF brand.
And as WCW gains momentum, Bischoff is plotting a killer blow – a shock role reversal that will force WWF boss Vince McMahon to rethink how his wrestling promotion works.
It’s 1994 and WCW is stepping up its game. To get the jump on WWF, Ted Turner is writing big checks to steal away the WWF’s biggest stars and sponsors. And as WCW’s star power increases, so does its popularity with wrestling fans.
But the WWF is in no position to fight back. It’s struggling to keep the lights on, there’s discontent among its roster of wrestlers, and Vince McMahon is preoccupied with staying out of prison.
And now Turner wants to deliver a killer blow. A new Monday night wrestling show that will go head to head with the WWF’s flagship TV program Monday Night Raw.
It’s the dawn of the 1990s and Vince McMahon’s WWF is the king of wrestling. But trouble’s brewing: a steroids scandal is about to deal a body blow to the WWF and its family-friendly reputation.
The scandal will leave WWF stuck in damage control mode as it fights to stem the losses from falling TV ratings, ticket sales, and pay-per-view buys.
Meanwhile, Ted Turner’s trying to get World Championship Wrestling fighting fit with help from a former Pizza Hut regional manager, a self-proclaimed Cowboy, and a back-up announcer who wants to bring wrestling to Disney World.
It’s the early 1980s and there’s peace in the wrestling business. For years regional wrestling companies have maintained order by sticking to their own slices of US and Canadian territory.
But that’s all about to change. Vince McMahon has just taken over the World Wrestling Federation, and he wants war. He’s on a mission to crush all opposition and establish the WWF as the only wrestling game in town.
But his assault on the wrestling status quo will also make him a powerful enemy: cable TV mogul Ted Turner.
Harley Davidson built its brand on big, loud and heavy bikes. So why is the company staking its future on an electric motorcycle? It turns out Harley's main demographic, baby boomers, are aging out of the motorcycle scene and the company is looking for its next target market. But will people be interested in a bike that is so fundamentally different than what the company is known for? And how do motorbikes overall fit into an auto industry that is becoming increasingly electric? Journalist Bradley Brownell writes about the auto industry and motorcycles, and has even test driven Harley's new electric bike. He joins us to talk about Harley Davidson, the motorcycle industry and its electric future.
By the early 1980s, Harley-Davidson is fighting to survive. Japan has glutted the American market with bikes, creating a war Harley can’t fight alone. The company turns to the U.S. government. It’s something they tried in the ‘50s with no success, but now there’s a man in the White House who loves the all-American Milwaukee brand.
In the years ahead Harley stands tall, surviving all manner of battles. But there’s one foe that never stops: time. The company needs to appeal to a new generation of young riders who may not be attracted to Harley hogs — or motorcycles at all. It’s yet another vexing chapter for the 116-year-old company that refuses to die.
It’s 1969, and the iconic film Easy Rider stars Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson and—most prominently—Harley choppers. It boosts the brand’s cool cred even higher with the American counterculture, much to the chagrin of the aging, conservative company owners in Milwaukee. They’ve long-hated the fact that the Hells Angels ride Hogs, but now the top Angel reveals some shocking news on his true feelings about Harleys.
Finally, there’s a new light in Milwaukee. Willie G. Davidson, son of Harley’s president, rises as chief of style and design. He not only appreciates the outlaw bikers, he looks like one. Harley-Davidson needs to embrace the image that’s grown around the bikes, and Willie G. seems like the man to lead the charge. But can he pull it off?
It’s 1963. After battling the wave of British bikes vying for the high-dollar U.S. motorcycle market, Harley-Davidson is slammed by a tsunami of machines from Japan. Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki and—the biggest, most popular of them all—Honda.
It’s a nightmare that will force the company to the edge of bankruptcy as the Japanese redefine the industry. Whether Harley can change with the changing times remains to be seen.
On the literary front, writer Hunter Thompson canonizes the Hells Angels with his bestselling book dissecting the outlaw biker crew, highlighting their passion for Harleys.
As Honda’s sunshiney ‘60s ad jingle says, you meet the nicest people on a Honda. It begs the question, who do you meet on a Harley?
By the late 1940s, World War II has ended, but Harley’s battle with a few disenfranchised veterans is just beginning. Bored and looking for kicks, these men are forming clubs based around a love of boozing, brawling and Harley Hogs. The motorcycle riots in the small town of Hollister, California bring huge headlines, and a few years later Hollywood stokes the fires with The Wild One. The first biker gang movie features Harleys front and center, and it’s publicity that the bosses in Milwaukee hate with a passion.
As the company turns 50, it gets a unique gift when its archrival finally bites the dust. But the competition remains stiff as Harley revs up to deal with invaders from England and — on the plus side — there’s a glowing Hog nod from the King of Rock n’ Roll.
It’s 1903, and Harley-Davidson is entering the spanking new motorcycle market. Of the hundreds of fledgling brands, the bike to beat is Indian, and Harley has the company in its crosshairs. But a decade later, Harley is on the defensive, scrambling to distance itself from the deadly sport of board track racing and solidify its image as a respectable brand.
Indian has its own image problem when Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa starts leading charges on a Powerplus model. But when the U.S. sends General Blackjack Pershing to hunt Villa down, Pershing’s troops are riding Harleys.
But World War I proves a decisive turning point as both companies fight their way closer to the top of the motorcycle world.
By the late 1940s, Harley-Davidson has become America’s leading motorcycle manufacturer. The family-owned Milwaukee brand has battled hundreds of companies since its first bike rolled out of a backyard shack in 1903. Now they’re facing the birth of the outlaw bikers, disenfranchised WWII vets who love their Harleys—and love to cause trouble. It’s an association that conservative Harley owners can’t stand.
And fierce competition is coming in from British bike makers. Triumph is churning out lightweight, sporty machines that are the polar opposite of Harley’s heavy hogs, and everyone is vying for a piece of the lucrative U.S. market. Things get so cutthroat that Harley-Davidson appeals to the government. It’s an appeal that will not have happy results for the Milwaukee contingent. And the problems are just beginning.
With all the hype around portable and smart speakers, it's easy to forget that they didn't always exist. In fact, it took one fateful meeting with Monster Cables and Interscope Records to really kick the industry off.
We'll talk about when headphones became fashion, what it takes to get people to shell out $350 for a pair, and what happens when a million-dollar mistake becomes a billion-dollar mistake.
We hope you enjoy Monster and Beats by Dre duking it out for speaker domination in our first Business Battle. We'll be back next week with a full arc!
It’s the year 2000 and, for the first time in almost a century, Kellogg’s is no longer America's top cereal maker. Now a new CEO is in the driving seat, and he’s on a mission to win back the cereal crown from General Mills.
But even as the two rivals slug it out for number one, they’re both facing a new reality: a market that’s losing its appetite for cereals as people abandon their breakfast bowls for grab-and-go morning meals of granola bars, bagels, and Egg McMuffins.
It’s the 1980s and General Mills is making waves with a new cereal based on the world’s hottest video game: Pac-Man.
But Kellogg’s is hoping to cash in on a different trend: the growing clamor among adults for healthier breakfasts.
So it’s plotting a taboo-busting ad campaign that will rewrite the rules of cereal promotion and spark an all-out battle among the cereal makers to win over the health-conscious.
It’s the late 1950s and General Mills is playing catch-up. While Kellogg’s and Post are thriving on the back of animated characters and sugary cereals, General Mills’ cereals are looking stale. So now the Cheerios maker is on a mission to create its own roster of cartoon heroes who can charm children into demanding its cereals.
As General Mills fights back, Post is looking to the stars. It's planning a direct attack on Kellogg’s best-selling cereal with help from the space race.
But after years of selling sugary cereal with loveable characters, the cereal giants are about to face a backlash on Capitol Hill.
World War II is in the rearview mirror, and breakfast cereal is on the brink of a new calorific era. Post Cereals decides to break from its healthful past and start sugar coating its cereals. It’s a move that leaves Kellogg’s and General Mills in a quandary: should they follow Post’s lead or stick to their nutritional traditions?
But sugary cereal isn’t the only new challenge the cereal giants are wrestling with. A new, exciting medium called television is taking off fast and changing the rules of cereal promotion. And this TV and sugar boom is going to put children at the heart of the cereal business.
It’s 1904 and Quaker Oats is about to make an, ahem, explosive entry into the cold cereal business. With the Kellogg brothers at risk of being left behind, Will Kellogg finally decides it’s time to stand up to his brother. He cuts ties and brings the original corn flakes to market — aided by some shrewd advertising and an army of housewives — but sets off a legal battle that pits brother against brother.
But there’s about to be another entrant to the cereal business. General Mills is an upstart out of Minneapolis with an idea for a new cereal that will help the company stand out from the competition. The donut-shaped oat puffs even have a catchy name: Cheerioats.
It’s the late 1800s and America is in the grip of a bellyache epidemic. But, thanks to a divine revelation, help is on the way in the form of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. In his quest to calm the nation’s bowels, Dr. Kellogg is feeding his patients a new kind of breakfast: ready-to-eat cereal.
But when he refuses to exploit the full profit potential of his creations, one of his former patients seizes the opportunity to become a breakfast millionaire — much to the frustration of Dr. Kellogg’s long-suffering younger brother Will.
Ian S. Port, author of The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll joins us to talk about the future of the electric guitar as music creation becomes increasingly digital.
In the '90s and 2000s, new ownership has revitalized both Fender and Gibson and rekindled their rivalry. Through acquisitions, artist endorsements and their rapidly expanding custom shops, both brands are in a heated battle to win the hearts and minds of guitar lovers worldwide.
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz doesn't want to just dominate the electric guitar market. He wants to reinvent it. And with guitar sales declining, he goes all-in on new technology that will either revitalize Gibson — or sink it.
It's the early 1980s, and for the first time in 30 years, the U.S. guitar market has gone cold. Bands are switching to synthesizers and kids are ditching their garage bands for computers and video games.
A group of employees has bought the Fender brand but not its factory. Now they need to find a place to keep making guitars — fast. And Gibson has new owners, too — who bring plenty of rock 'n' roll attitude to the job, but little experience. Can these new stewards of guitar's most hallowed brands save their companies from the scrap heap?
In the 1960s, rock n' roll's popularity continues to grow. But one of the genre's most popular guitars, the Les Paul, is no longer being made. Now the guitar's namesake must convince an out-of-touch Gibson to put the favorite guitar of Eric Clapton and Keith Richards back into production.
Meanwhile, Gibson's rival Fender has a new parent company: CBS. Thanks to their deep corporate pockets, Fender is manufacturing and selling more guitars than ever. To keep pace, Gibson also finds a new corporate owner. But in their race for market dominance, are both guitar companies sacrificing quality for quantity?
Gibson's Les Paul sets a new standard for the solid-body electric guitar, and rival guitar maker Fender needs to respond. The company does so in 1954 with a sleek, futuristic guitar unlike anything else on the market: the Stratocaster. It's a hit.
With their higher volume and heavier tones, the Les Paul and Stratocaster help give rise to a new style of music: rock 'n' roll. It opens up a whole new market for electric guitars -- but which company will dominate?
It's 1950, and Fender's first solid-body guitar, the Esquire, is the laughingstock of the music industry. To guitar makers used to elegantly made hollow-body guitars, Fender's thin, simple plank of solid wood is a joke. But its bright, powerful sound and lack of feedback make it a hit with guitar players.
Gibson's ambitious young president, Ted McCarty, knows his company has to counter with a solid-body electric guitar of its own. To market the instrument, Gibson will turn to the most famous electric guitarist in the world, a man who happens to be an old friend of Leo Fender's — Les Paul.
In the 1930s and ’40s the market for electric guitars is growing, but it’s hindered by the instruments’ flawed designs. But a small group of mavericks is rethinking the guitar for the electronic age.
One of them, guitarist Les Paul, tries unsuccessfully to convince one of America's oldest guitar companies, Gibson, to mass-produce his "Log" — one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Gibson turns him down flat. But when a radio repairman turned inventor named Leo Fender sees Paul's Log, he's inspired to attempt his own version of a solid-body electric — and his creation will go on to forever change the way guitars are made.
It’s a new century and the beer industry is changing fast. Beyond America, new brewery empires are forming and they want to buy their way into the lucrative U.S. market.
And Miller is the first to fall, bought out by a South African company that wants to pull the Milwaukee brewery out of the doldrums.
But Anheuser-Busch isn’t worried. It’s the biggest brewer on the planet by some margin. But the king of beers is about to discover that its throne isn’t as secure as it thinks.
It’s the 1980s and Miller’s glory days are over. Drinkers are deserting High Life and Anheuser-Busch is about to launch a $50 million attack on Miller Lite.
With the pressure mounting, Miller hunts for a way to revive its momentum. It’s a search that sees the company travel to Japan, disguise itself as a microbrewery, and go head hunting.
Come the early 1970s, Miller has a new owner: tobacco giant Philip Morris. Armed with the Marlboro maker’s millions and marketing skills, Miller is about to shake up the beer business with a campaign targeting blue-collar workers thirsty for a cold pint...or three.
But at Anheuser-Busch, a generational rift is brewing — one that could have major repercussions for the beer business. The tensions between conservative-minded CEO Gussie Busch and his forward-thinking son and heir August Busch III are fast approaching the breaking point.
By 1933 Prohibition is over, and that means the race is on to dominate a beer market that’s been reset. Under the leadership of Anheuser-Busch heir Gussie Busch, the company is out to reclaim the beer throne. But there’s a challenger for the crown — Milwaukee’s top brewery, Schlitz.
But as these two giants lock horns in the fight for dominance, Miller Brewing is struggling to realize its dream of becoming a major league brewer. And it won’t sit by on the sidelines.
It’s 1893 and Chicago is about to host The World’s Columbian Exposition. It’s going to be the biggest show the world’s ever seen, and that means it’s time for Adolphus Busch to shine.
He’s the owner of Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch and the most flamboyant beer baron of the Gilded Age. Busch is determined to use the show to overshadow and outspend his nemesis, Captain Pabst, the owner of America’s number-one brewery.
But there’s a distraction he’s got to deal with first. A small-time brewer from Milwaukee called Miller has just launched a rival beer. Its name? Budweiser.
On today's special interview episode, renowned media futurist Rich Greenfield returns to fill us in on the latest developments in the streaming wars and how these changes might impact viewers in the coming years. Greenfield is a media and tech analyst with BTIG who has been following the industry for decades.
It’s spring 2019, and the Mouse House is determined to challenge Netflix for streaming supremacy. Disney CEO Bob Iger draws gasps at an industry event when he announces the new Disney Plus streaming service will cost just seven bucks a month. Then the company drops another bombshell — it’s buying out Comcast’s stake in Hulu, the destination for edgy, adult fare, to expand its streaming empire. Now whatever content Disney makes, it’ll have a platform to host it.
But Disney isn’t the only company eyeing Netflix’s crown. Apple, Comcast, Viacom, and WarnerMedia are all sharpening their knives. In the battle for eyeballs, anyone could emerge the victor.
Netflix goes from being a streaming company to a movement in which consumers all over the world decide what to watch, and when and how they watch. The future that Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph envisioned two decades earlier has arrived. The unfettered reign of cable television has ended.
In 2019, AT&T’s acquisition of HBO’s parent company Time Warner in 2019 throws HBO’s future into even more turmoil. In a post-Game of Thrones world, can the cable network survive? Or will Netflix’s march to domination be complete?
Hollywood execs thought Netflix was crazy to give up advertising and spin off opportunities by letting viewers flop on a couch and watch a whole season of a show all at once. But Netflix knew it was onto something. All of their studies and focus groups revealed something new: viewers who binged content formed an emotional attachment to Netflix.
We take a step back to explore how a little company called Home Box Office went from serving B-movies to 325 homes in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania to become the juggernaut that we know as HBO. In the process, HBO, became the standard by which all other cable companies would have to measure themselves -- after all, it’s not TV. It’s HBO.
You know the expression “content is king”? Well it turns out, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s a hard-working algorithm that burrows into customer habits and viewing patterns. With that, Netflix had a clear upper hand on Blockbuster. That, and the fact that Netflix targeted this new “streaming” technology that in 2007, no one really believed in. Soon they were on top of the world. But it’s dangerous being on top. If you trip, you have a long way to fall.
Thinking like your enemy is the best way to beat them, and during the war, Blockbuster tried every trick in the book to get inside Netflix. Sometimes they succeeded — sending “housewives” into warehouses as spies — and sometimes things didn’t go as planned. But when Blockbuster did deliver, they delivered big. They threw everything they had at Netflix, but the war raged on.
After Hastings pleaded with Antioco to buy Blockbuster online, Antioco agreed to present Hasting’s proposal to the board. What he didn’t tell him was that he was pushing the board to reject the offer so Netflix would wither and die. Meanwhile, Netflix was struggling to gain legitimacy in Hollywood. Netflix quickly realized that before it could take on the Hollywood gods, it would have to slay Blockbuster.
The way we watch is changing so rapidly that we’ve decided to revisit our very first and most popular Business War: Netflix versus Blockbuster. We’re re-airing an expanded eight-part series following Netflix’s battles against HBO and today’s new entrants into the Streaming Wars.
It all started around 1997, with a guy named Marc Randolph and his mathematician friend, Reed Hastings. Randolph and Hastings knew they’d have to take on Blockbuster. But what they didn’t anticipate was that their business model would take on network television and eventually change the entire movie industry.
This was an 8-year total war that left innumerable casualties in its wake: thousands of hollowed-out buildings and economic losses in the billions.
t is 1997. For decades, Lamborghini has struggled to survive as a company, and to compete with its nemesis Ferrari. All that is about to change. Volkswagen buys Lambo and injects it with cash and bulletproof German engineering. For the first time ever, Lamborghini can finally compete with Ferrari with a full line of cars—and serious racing.
The result is a new golden age of supercars, one that we are still living through today.
It’s 1970. At his factory in Italy, Ferruccio Lamborghini is desperate to build a car that can outdo his rival, Enzo Ferrari, whose Ferrari factory is just 20 miles away. With the help of genius designers and engineers, Lamborghini comes up with what many car fans still today call the most outrageous model ever to roll down a road.
Throughout the decade and beyond, the Ferrari/Lamborghini rivalry spawns the fastest cars in the world, the coolest car movies, and more.
It’s the early 1960s. In Maranello, Italy, Enzo Ferrari has made a name for himself building the most exotic road cars in the world. But when a dissatisfied customer named Ferruccio Lamborghini shows up to complain about his Ferrari’s busted clutch, Enzo refuses to accept blame, accusing Lamborghini of not knowing how to drive. Lamborghini vows revenge.
In 1964, Lamborghini launches its first model, kicking off a rivalry with Ferrari that makes for one of the hottest automotive stories of the 1960s.
With the world plugging into the Internet, toys are under pressure. Kids are swapping plastic play for screen-based entertainment and both Mattel and Hasbro need to adapt. The question is: how?
Mattel’s also finding out the hard way that Barbie’s reign as the queen of dolls is no longer secure. Challengers to her throne are emerging and the first strike against the dream doll comes not from Hasbro, but from within its own offices.
A few months ago, Mattel’s revenues were just fifty million dollars behind Hasbro’s. But now that Hasbro’s swallowed Tonka—the classic maker of Nerf, Play-Doh, and Monopoly—Mattel is half a billion dollars behind, and CEO John Amerman isn’t happy about it.
Ever since Hasbro turned British fashion doll Sindy into a Barbie lookalike, the two toymakers have been at war. Now Amerman is looking to make a couple strategic acquisitions: one to put Mattel back in pole position, and the other, to spite Hasbro.
It’s the early 1980s and things are not looking good for Hasbro. The company hasn’t had a hit since Hungry Hungry Hippos; its founding CEO Merrill Hassenfeld has just died; now Star Wars dolls have just about gobbled up the entire action figure market. Hasbro needs to deliver a toy capable of taking on the Star Wars dolls, or else the company risks losing its only source of stable income, the family pencil factory.
But Hasbro’s not the only toymaker plotting to take on Star Wars. Three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, Mattel’s also preparing an assault on the action figure market. A line of fantastical action figures called The Masters of the Universe.
Sizzlers, Mattel’s new motorized Hot Wheels, were supposed to be the top toy this Christmas. But sales have fizzled, leaving Mattel $30 million below target. For the last ten years, Mattel’s done exceptionally well by its investors, but now the toymaker is facing a stock price collapse. To keep up appearances, Mattel starts cooking its books—but the move may end up costing CEO Ruth Handler the company.
Elsewhere in Toyland, Hasbro’s facing an uncertain future. Kids are turning their backs on G.I. Joe and the company’s short on cash. As its rivals rush towards an electronic future, Hasbro risks being left behind.
It’s the 1960s and Hasbro is struggling. The pencil manufacturer turned toymaker hasn’t had a major success since Mr. Potato Head hit the shelves in 1952, and it’s starting to lose money. If they don’t act fast, they’ll be headed for bankruptcy in no time.
Mattel’s “accessories sold separately” approach to Barbie has revolutionized the industry. Now Hasbro’s toymakers hope to replicate her success with a doll of their own--for boys. But first, they’ll have to get the greenlight from CEO Merrill Hassenfeld, who has one cast-iron rule about new toys: No dolls.
Meanwhile, Mattel’s also about to make a play for the boys, as well: a hot boys’ toy that will cement the company’s status as the world’s top toymaker.
It’s the late 1940s and two small toymakers are taking their first uneasy steps. The names of these young hopefuls are Hasbro and Mattel. One’s an offshoot of a pencil manufacturer. The other a husband-and-wife garage start-up.
But toy-mayking, they soon discover, is an unexpectedly cutthroat business. If either of these companies hopes to survive--let alone succeed--they’re going to need to get creative. Disrupting the embedded and experienced kingpins of Toyland, will require them to take chances on TV, potatoes, Mickey Mouse and one particularly risqué novelty doll from Germany.
The battle between the NFL and the USFL finally comes to a head. Donald Trump has bullied his way to the top of the USFL and pressured his league into suing the NFL for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
But the NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle is not about to back down. If the NFL settles now, they’ll be opening the floodgates to a slew of new competitors, and costly trials the league can’t afford. The only course of action? Dismantle the USFL so completely that no one even thinks to challenge the NFL again.
For nearly two full years, the mighty NFL sat idly by as the upstart USFL tried to chip away at its status, talent, and reputation as the most powerful sports league on the planet. Now, the NFL is ready to settle the score, once and for all.
The league commissions a Harvard professor to prepare meticulous, 46-page step-by-step plan intended to squash the USFL in its tracks. Commissioner Pete Rozelle prepares himself for battle—but the battle comes sooner than expected. The USFL files an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that it has monopolized fall television. At stake? One point three two billion dollars, enough money to kill the NFL.
It’s 1984, and at USFL franchise offices across the country, multi-million dollar contracts are flowing like Gatorade. As the United States Football League prepares for kickoff on its second season, owners race to recruit the best college players, and steal the stars from NFL rosters.
Initially, the NFL dismissed the new league as a sideshow stunt. But the USFL’s spending spree has caught the full attention of the veteran league--which is exactly what New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump wants.
By most measures, the USFL’s debut season is a success. The games post solid numbers--in both ticket sales and television ratings--offering undeniable proof that there’s an audience for professional spring football. Still, the league is hemorrhaging money. At a post-season meeting, the twelve franchise owners vote on what to do with their fumbling investments. Eleven of the owners decide to stay the course, and even expand the league to bring in more capital, but the owner of the New Jersey Generals, J. Walter Duncan, has had enough.
Duncan puts the Generals on the market for eight million dollars, hoping the low price will launch a bidding war. But only one man makes an offer: a young, brash, egomaniacal Manhattan real estate developer named Donald Trump.
The NFL has faced rival leagues in the past, and routinely squashed them without breaking so much as a sweat. The NFL’s powerful commissioner, Pete Rozelle, assumes the USFL will be no different. He sees the rival league as a joke. A blip on the radar. But then the new league does something no one saw coming: it signs University of Georgia junior Herschel Walker, the biggest star in college football.
When Walker signs with the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, he leaves more than his college diploma on the table. The Heisman trophy-winner passes up a seat at the table of America’s Team, the legendary Dallas Cowboys. “This,” Rozelle tells his colleagues, “is war.”
For years, David Dixon has been trying to convince the National Football League to launch an expansion team in New Orleans, but he always comes up empty-handed. Finally, after one too many letdowns, Dixon realizes his only hope for a hometown team is to start his own football league. Unlike the NFL, his league — the United States Football League — will play its games in the spring, and boast rosters full of hometown heroes from regional colleges.
Fans and investors seem to love the idea. But just then, the NFL announces the location of its next franchise: New Orleans.
Egg McMuffins, Croissan’wiches and coffee. Today’s fast food fight is all about breakfast time. Wall Street Journal reporter Julie Jargon joins to talk about where Burger King and McDonald’s are headed, the rise of eating at home, and how fast-casual chains are taking a bite out of the market.
It’s a new century and times are tough for the burger giants. Burger King’s in a rut and McDonald’s is about to report its first loss in nearly 40 years. Both brands need to reinvent themselves fast. But can they come up with strategies robust enough to shake off the coming economic crisis?
Burger King is under pressure. McDonald’s is wowing the nation with a new way to eat chicken and Wendy’s is quickly closing in on the number two fast food spot. Backed into a corner, Burger King prepares to bite back with an ad campaign attacking its rivals directly.
The heat is on and the burger wars are about to get dirty. It’s a game of kitchen chicken. The only question is who will blink first.
It’s the 1970s, and the burger barons are turning to TV advertising to propel profits skyward. McDonald’s is betting that a little song and dance can give it the competitive edge, but Burger King is stepping up their ads as well: debuting a killer new slogan that’s sure to set it on a collision course with Burger Chef.
By the mid-1960s, Americans have developed a taste for fast, delicious, affordable food — and they’re demanding more. U.S. fast food franchises — McDonald’s, Burger King and Burger Chef — know that if they want to feed America and win the burger wars, they’re going to have to grow.
But Wall Street is still reluctant to invest in a bunch of burger chains. And Ray Kroc is about to learn firsthand that those who can’t stand the heat need to be forced out of the kitchen.
It’s the late 1950s and fry cooks are flipping as fast as they can. But McDonald’s and Insta-Burger King’s desire for national success far outstrips their ability to deliver. It’s not enough to just make a better burger: bad contracts, bad equipment, limited capital and investors who don’t believe in 15-cent burgers threaten to stop the race in its tracks.
Ray Kroc believes that he has the answers but to beat Insta-Burger King and a new aggressive competitor from Indiana, he has to get out from the McDonald Brothers’ shadow--and he has to do it fast.
It’s 1948, and somewhere around the edge of the Mojave Desert, a drive-in restaurant is making waves. It's called McDonald’s and it’s like no burger joint anyone’s seen before—a carhop-free eatery with lightning fast service, and shockingly low prices.
But McDonald’s proprietors aren’t dreaming as big as the entrepreneurs traveling to California to see their groundbreaking restaurant. And for would-be burger king Keith Cramer and milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc, that’s a golden opportunity.
Mardiros Iskenderian was known for two things: the unbelievable generosity he showed to the Armenian community, and the deep love he expressed for his family—particularly for his mother, whom he treated like a queen.
So why did Mardiros try to cut his sisters out of the family business? What drove him to register the Zankou Chicken trademark solely under his own name? And how could a simple business re-arrangement among a loving, growing clan end in murder?
While it’s a cliche that the history of every family empire includes scenes of Shakespearean drama … rarely does a legit enterprise involving something as innocent as take-out pita wraps engender the kind of violence that has run through three generations of this family of entrepreneurs who fled war on two continents, only to see their business erupt in a bloody climax. This is part 1 of a 2 part series.
Microsoft has outmaneuvered Netscape by bundling its browser Internet Explorer with its Windows operating systems, and then giving the browser away. As its users defect, Netscape withers.
But before Microsoft can celebrate, the federal government and 20 states file antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft. The government aims to show that Microsoft acted illegally in squelching competition by using its monopoly on PC operating systems to drive Netscape out of business. Microsoft claims it’s just hard-nosed business and is fighting back. This is Episode Six: Even When They Lose They Win.
To compete with Netscape, Bill Gates is forced to do the one thing he hates most: give tech away for free. He bundles Internet Explorer with Windows, effectively making his browser ubiquitous--and Netscape’s redundant. Suddenly, Netscape, the company that launched the dot-com boom and shattered records with its IPO, finds itself on life support.
But the battle isn’t over. Attorney General Janet Reno has been watching Microsoft snuff out the competition, and she’s about to make life hell for Bill Gates.
It’s summer 1995, and Bill Gates is worried about the sudden rise of the Internet. In the world of computers, Gates is used to being in the driver’s seat. Now it seems he’s not even in the car.
Marc Andreessen has just launched the latest version of Netscape Navigator. It’s faster and more stable than the last version, and still, inexplicably, free. The Internet is a massive success, certain to work its way into every person’s life, but as Gates pokes around he can’t find a single Microsoft file on it. To stay in the game, Gates realizes, that will have to change.
It’s 1974, and a young programmer named Paul Allen has just caught a glimpse of the world’s first personal computer, the Altair 8800. It has the potential to change the computing landscape forever — but it doesn’t yet have an operating system. Altair’s developers sank every dollar they had into its hardware, banking that someone else would figure out how to make their machine run.
Now programmers are racing to develop an operating system and deliver it to the company’s headquarters in New Mexico. Allen knows he can do it, but in order to do it first, he’ll need some help. For that, he reaches out to his childhood friend, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore named Bill Gates.
Two disgruntled tech whizzes, Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen, join forces to exact revenge on the companies that wronged them, building a browser so fast and powerful that it wipes their competitors off the face of the web. In private, they call it a “Mosaic Killer,” but in public, it’s called “Netscape Navigator.”
The launch of their new browser will mark the beginning of a new era in computing, the birth of a new economy based on the web, and the moment Microsoft put a target on their backs.
It’s 1992, and in the basement of the chemistry building at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two computer science students are working on a new web browser. Up to this point, browsing has made up less than one percent of all internet traffic, but Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina are about to change all that. Fueled by a combination of Pepperidge Farm cookies, Skittles and hubris, Andreessen and Bina emerge from the basement with Mosaic, the user-friendly web browser that will popularize the internet—if it doesn’t crash the school’s server first.
As the extreme marketing battle between Red Bull and Monster reaches unprecedented heights (128,000 feet above sea level, to be precise), a new challenger steps onto the scene. 5-hour Energy, the tiny titan in the two ounce can, quickly plows through the energy drink market, generating hundreds of millions of dollars each year and leaving a trail of failed imitators in its wake.
But for the moment, Red Bull and Monster have bigger issues on their hands. A string of unexpected deaths and hospitalizations, a high-profile lawsuit, and whispers of a government ban threaten to topple their energy empire.
As Red Bull plans its U.S. invasion, an unlikely upstart vies to beat it to market. Led by marketing visionary Mark Hall, the wholesome Hansen’s Beverage Company launches Monster, a grungy, all-American alternative to its yuppie European competitor. Not only does Hall intend to pull Hansen’s back from the verge of bankruptcy, his plans position Monster to take a massive bite out of Red Bull’s multi-billion dollar industry.
Back in the 1980s no one even knew what an energy drink was. So how did they get so big? In our new three-part series, we dig into the story of the two big beasts of the energy drink world: Red Bull and Monster Energy. We’ll find out how they powered up our lives, reinvented marketing, fought the authorities and created multi-billion-dollar fortunes.
Mikael Wood is the pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times. He joined the paper back in 2012. But before that, he wrote about music as a contributor to publications like Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, the Village Voice and other alt-weeklies. He’s interviewed artists from Rod Stewart to Diplo... and many in between.
But back when Napster was hanging on for dear life around the turn of the century, he was finishing up undergrad at Northwestern in Illinois… so he knows a bit about the digital music download boom personally.
In our last episode of Napster versus the Record Labels, the insanely popular file-sharing company staved off a preliminary injunction that would have shut them down, though the outlook for Napster remains bleak.
Napster’s run out of heroes. Congress is not going to save the company when the evidence shows it knowingly ignored piracy.
And negotiations with the labels go sideways when Napster’s CEO Hank Barry first jacks up the buyout price to $2 billion dollars and then refuses to give them majority control. Universal walks, and the other labels follow. All that’s left is Bertelsmann.
Napster finally snared a venture investment firm unafraid of the pending lawsuit, but it’s far from clear how Napster will weather the coming storm.
Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker finally get to Silicon Valley, where their dream for music sharing is supposed to take off. When word gets out about what Napster is doing, software programmers are literally banging on the doors, begging to work for Napster for free. Their idea is solid, but the finances are weak. It’s time to incorporate and find investors. Shawn turns to draw up papers. To Shawn’s shock, his uncle takes 70 percent of the company for the effort. And, as it turns out, it costs a lot of money to bring the world free music.
Naysayers tell Shawn Fanning that only an experienced Silicon Valley software engineer solve all the technological challenges to get Napster working. But Shawn thinks he’s got the answers and asks himself, ‘’why not me?” And he gets to work, turning to an online chat group of hackers who are eager to help so they can […]
It' s 2000, and the record industry is just waking up to a major threat to its business model: an online file-sharing system created by a 17-year-old kid from Massachusetts. With Napster — so called after the nickname its founder earned on the basketball court — users can download music for free. Why would anyone pay 18 or 20 bucks for a CD ever again?
Musicians like the Offspring greet the technology with open arms. Some bands see Napster as a way to make more money on each song while breaking the control of the record labels over their music. But not so fast. The record industry isn’t just going to give up its $15 billion in annual profits. And the music execs are convinced: the courts will be on their side.
Host David Brown sits down with Tristan Donovan, series writer and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, just as this console war enters uncharted territory. What’s next for Xbox, PlayStation and wild card Nintendo Switch? Hint: probably not three more generations of consoles. Plus, what a groundbreaking announcement from Microsoft could mean for the gaming industry moving forward.
As Nintendo burns with the failure of Wii U, Sony can’t woo PS2 users to the new Playstation 3. It vows to not make that mistake again, and the Playstation 4 prioritizes on what the gamers want: a better gaming experience. But it’s not just the focus on gaming that makes the PS4 a hit.
In the last episode, Microsoft invaded the video game console market with the Xbox. The software giant threw five billion dollars into beating the PlayStation 2, but it wasn’t enough to loosen Sony’s grip on the console market. So now Microsoft’s suiting up for battle again, armed this time with the Xbox 360...
Sony was preparing Playstation to eventually replace personal computers. Microsoft sees that coming and goes into combat mode. Bill Gates spends more than two billion dollars to launch Microsoft’s Xbox console with innards that Gates hopes will not only put Sony on the defensive but will one day replace PCs as the future of digital home entertainment.
Thanks to deregulation, no-frills knock offs of Southwest take to the skies like crows. About 120 airlines have gone out of business or filed for bankruptcy since the industry was deregulated in 1978. American’s SABRE system optimizes…everything. It manages ticket pricing so flights are always full, and American is building new hubs and terminals.
Herb Kelleher is coming into his own as CEO of Southwest…his flair for people skills has people laughing at Southwest’s competitive high jinks. Meanwhile, American is reeling from a secretly recorded phone call leaked to the FAA. It’s bad news for American – but Braniff gets even worse news that keeps American.
In our last episode, Southwest Airlines used a massive booze giveaway to win a fare war against Braniff, putting the fledgling airline on course toward its first annual profit. And Southwest has won a legal standoff to stay at Love Field — for now. The battle now moves from the sky to computer monitors.
Baniff and Southwest battled in court for domination over the skies. Southwest came out on top for a little while, but Baniff pushed back with prices Southwest just couldn’t beat. The only way Southwest could fight back was to give the mostly male, mostly businessmen clientele something they couldn’t refuse: free booze.
In our six-part series, Southwest versus American Airlines, we’ll look at how the bruising dogfight between the more established airlines and the scrappy upstart would not only change the way we fly, but send some airlines crashing to their deaths.
We’ve spent the last three weeks covering a soda rivalry so intense it fizzed over — on more than one occasion. Now we’re bringing our series on Coke versus Pepsi to a close. In a minute, you’ll hear an interview that’s going to wrap it up nicely — with a few stories about the soda.
Coke continues to grapple with Pepsi’s winning ads, but as Y2K nears both companies realize this isn’t just a cola war anymore. There’s more backlash for both companies, this time from schools. Coke and Pepsi are now seen as allies in America’s obesity. Both companies consider this but choose drastically different paths for the future.
With the Pepsi Challenge under attack by Coke, Pepsi needs a new ad campaign. So the company turns for inspiration to the biggest pop star in the world: Michael Jackson. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has a new chief executive who’s convinced tinkering with Coca-Cola’s prized formula is the key to winning the cola wars. He’ll stop at nothing to bring Coca-Cola fans New Coke—whether they like it or not.
Welcome to the Pepsi Generation. As Pepsi fires up a hot new ad campaign, Coca-Cola starts getting nervous. But a sudden plane detour through Ireland gives Coke executive Bill Backer inspiration for one of the most iconic ads of the 20th century. It seems Coke is on top once again—but Pepsi has another trick up its sleeve. The company is out for blood with the Pepsi Challenge, a nationwide taste test that will endanger the most precious part of Coca-Cola lore: its secret recipe.
With world war on the horizon, Coca-Cola and Pepsi face a supply crisis. How to get enough sugar to continue bottling their sweet fizzy goodness? One man has the answer -- to secure its supply line, Coke must sell itself as the all-American cola. For GIs and liberated citizens the world over, Coca-Cola will become a symbol of hope. But the company’s all-hands patriotic marketing strategy leaves Pepsi out in the cold. With Coca-Cola claiming Europe, America’s number two cola turns south of the border to survive.
The cola cops are coming. Pepsi, an upstart Coca-Cola imitator, grabs its rival’s attention by serving up its own beverage to unsuspecting soda fountain customers. Coca-Cola moves fast — but it’s not enough to stop Charles Guth, Pepsi-Cola’s new owner and the head of Loft Candy. He stays one step ahead of Coke with his dirty business practices. It’ll be up to lawyer and turnaround artist Walter Mack to stop the baddest man in the candy business.
The rivalry between the world’s best known brands is legendary and dates back more than 120 years — and it’s still bubbling on. Who among us hasn’t take the Coke v Pepsi test? The world seems to be divided over who’s in what camp.
In our six-part series, Coca Cola versus Pepsi, we dig into the epic struggle for the global soda market that’s worth more than $360 billion today.
PayPal is running out of time. The online payment service is hauling in new users, but its bottom line is bleeding red. Without a buyer to pump it full of cash soon, the company could go under. Should it take the safe route and sell out to its longtime nemesis eBay? Or should it risk the open market with an initial public offering?
Why not both?
By late 2000, PayPal and X.com are yoked together, with X.com CEO Elon Musk leading the newly combined company. But it’s a rocky marriage: PayPal’s founders clash with their new leader over everything from his imperious management style to his choice of server platforms. Finally the PayPal loyalists decide there’s only one option left: it’s time to engineer a coup.
Remember the summer of 2000? The Olympics were in full swing and PayPal was under attack. Not from eBay, but Russian hackers. In looking for soft targets in the early days of the untethered Internet, PayPal was the fattest cow. On top of that, there are competitors, and they’re catching on fast. Between the money stolen from hackers and competitors, PayPal has to figure out a way to survive, and fast.
In the midst of the dot-com boom, there's also a lot of dot-com bust. PayPal desperately needed to grow but they companies who'd raised millions more suddenly disintegrate. The solution was so simple it seemed almost illegal - let the converted proselytize. And they do to incredible results. It doesn't take long for eBay to notice but there's nothing they can do to stop PayPal's viral momentum.
As eBay gathers steam, a libertarian chess champion and a programmer who fled Communist Ukraine team up to change the world with their encryption software. But when their plan to piggyback on the ubiquitous Palm Pilot hits a snag, they stumble upon a new idea. The concept is so revolutionary, it will change the landscape of e-commerce and turn the fledgling company into a viral phenomenon. There’s just one problem. PayPal is set on a collision course with the one company it needs to succeed: eBay.
Today it’s hard to even imagine the world before eBay existed. Where would you go to buy an autographed baseball, or an almost-new stroller?
And every day — every minute — millions of transactions happen seamlessly on eBay, using the money transfer service PayPal.
It’s been a hard fought battle for decades, and in the 1970s there’s no signs of Ford or Chevrolet slowing down. But this time they’re fighting on new grounds, ones dominated by Japanese cars. Honda, Toyota and Datsun dominate the market, and Ford and Chevy seem like they’re just… running out of gas.
In 1896, Henry Ford puttered around Detroit streets testing his “Quadricycle.” This was the whimsical beginning to a revolution that redesigned the landscape of America.
Cars changed the way America lived, worked, ate, shopped, and listened to music. And more than 100 years ago, the entire industry was a group of men, whose names are now emblazoned on every bumper, just hanging out at their local bar.
FDR believed that WWII was a contest of mass production. Whoever could build the most trucks, tanks, guns and airplanes would come out on top. What power could defeat the United States of America and its massive automobile industry? But for Roosevelt’s arsenal to work automakers will have to put aside their rivalries and retool.
In 1896, Henry Ford puttered around Detroit streets testing his “Quadricycle.” This was the whimsical beginning to a revolution that redesigned the landscape of America.
Cars changed the way America lived, worked, ate, shopped, and listened to music. And more than 100 years ago, the entire industry was a group of men, whose names are now emblazoned on every bumper, just hanging out at their local bar.
Joining us today is Gabriel Kahn, a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California. He’s a former Los Angeles bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and a frequent commentator on monetization and the media.
He’s also taught courses on the history of journalism. He recently wrote an open letter to the new owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon Shiong, and now he’s here to talk about Hearst vs Pulitzer!
Join us next week as we visit a new business war: Ford vs Chevrolet.
A close up look at a crisis of their own making. One that nearly cost Hearst and Pulitzer their grip on the country’s first media empires. Instead of pitting them against each other, the crisis would see the two media moguls finding rare common ground.
At the turn of the century, newspapers flew off the presses in 8 or 10 separate editions a day. Newsies grabbed them off stacks in the alleys and took to the streets, their little hands stained with ink. But when the Newsies go on strike, no papes get sold. No papes, no profit – which leaves both Hearst and Pulitzer with a BIG problem.
The U.S. has not gotten involved in the conflict in Cuba. But many Americans embrace Cuba as a freedom-loving country whose people are being brutally oppressed by corrupt Spanish imperialists clinging to power. Hearst sees a win-win — military intervention with both a human-rights purpose and a way to stimulate the economy.
We’re going back a few years before that, to Hearst & Pulitzer’s first encounters in New York as they compete for the hearts, minds—and wallets—of their readers.
In 1897, America looked very different. Carriages rolled through the streets of New York. Mass media was just growing up, and Hearst was convinced that carrier pigeons – hunted to extinction by 1914 – were what would give his paper the edge during the early days of the Headless Torso case.
This case belonged to the whole city. Everyone – barkeeps in Brooklyn and bankers on the Upper East Side alike are invested in the mystery… and what happened to his head.
This is the beginning of a mystery, a great business rivalry, and a look into American history. To tell the story of Hearst vs Pulitzer, we called our friend Lindsay Graham over at American History Tellers for help.
The Headless Torso mystery is about a jilted husband, a German midwife, a muscleman and more colorful characters. The city’s been mesmerized for months, and in Gilded Age New York, most people just couldn’t resist pressing their pennies into a newsboy’s ink-stained hand to find out the latest.
After years of sitting on the sidelines of the next-generation console war, Nintendo is finally ready to make its move. But, the years it’s spent building it’s reassuring family-friendly reputation is now a weakness. Nintendo children of the 80s are all grown up, and want adult games. Sony is able to release edgier fare like Grand Theft Auto and Tomb Raider. The half-decade cold war between Sony and Nintendo is about to turn hot. Their next head-to-head battle is a multi-billion dollar clash that will define the future of video games. And in the real world, just one of them can prevail.
This is a story about Sony and Nintendo, but it also involves a little company called Sega. Ever play Sonic the Hedgehog? That’s Sega. And during Nintendo’s domination of the US market, they were the only company able to fight back. That is, until they tried to outplay Sony.
This is a story about Sony and Nintendo, but it also involves a little company called Sega. Ever play Sonic the Hedgehog? That’s Sega. And during Nintendo’s domination of the US market, they were the only company able to fight back. That is, until they tried to outplay Sony.
From the moment it began, the PlayStation project was in danger. The problem was none other than PlayStations knight and chief advocate: Kutaragi. He thought the now-iconic handlebar controller design was “too different” from the flat rectangles people were used to. To make matters worse, PlayStation was getting closer and closer to launching without any games… a console with no games? Good luck with the PlayStation now, Sony. They were in trouble. And Nintendo knew it.
It’s 1949. 22-year old Hiroshi Yamauchi is the heir apparent for his family’s playing card company, Nintendo. From humble beginnings as a scrappy street stall founded in Kyoto’s back alleys to the largest card company in Japan by the time Yamauchi takes over, this isn’t a company that backs down easily when a little competition comes in. But it was a company that changed it’s entire business over a couple of… cartoon characters.
Once a symbol of 80s teenage nerdom, video games are now as common as television sets in American households. Can you imagine a world where the Sony PlayStation didn’t come out? That’s what almost happened. Originally conceived as a joint venture between Nintendo and Sony, the SNES-CD was supposed to be the bridge between Japan’s two largest tech companies. Instead, it drove the companies to war, an intense competition for entertainment domination that still goes on today.
After all that IBM has been through over the decades, it would have never in a million years guessed that their undoing would be at the hands of a scrawny and unknown computer nerd named Bill Gates. Gates sees the future, but can IBM catch up? Will they still be on top 50 years from now? Only time will tell.
We hope you enjoyed this series on the first computer wars, and I want to give a special shout out to our fans, The Elfenbein family!
It’s 1961. Since his father retired 5 years earlier, Thomas Watson Jr pushed to modernize IBM from the top down. New management, new ideas, newer, faster, machines. The company has grown, employing 1,000 people, they’ve dominated the emerging computer market… and managed to frustrate the public all at the same time. IBM’s new technology is confusing and the only way out may be to create a Civil War, burning IBM from the inside out. Will they be able to agree, or will infighting cost them the entire company?
In Episode 1 the UNIVAC successfully predicted that Eisenhower would win the 1952 election. In Philadelphia, a champagne hangover quickly settled in over the Remington Rand building, the company elated at it’s success. But over at IBM, a company that doesn’t allow it’s employees to drink, they’re working, furiously. And Watson Jr. is ready to take the 701 to market in a few months. Visiting the 701 is soon the hottest ticket in town, and The Watsons and IBM sit back to watch. They feel the momentum shifting back in IBM’s favor once again.
What’s a 16% market share when the public thinks you have more? A potential anti-trust suit, if you’re IBM. Watson Jr. sees a potential lawsuit as a way out from under his father’s control. Sr. sees his company rotting away in the hands of a kid who can’t handle it. But when the antitrust suit comes through in 1952, Jr’s in charge. Can he actually handle the business he desperately wanted?
How do you really “get ahead” in a war? Sometimes you don’t have to do anything, you just wait for your opponent to fumble. And in the late 1940s, IBM’s CEO Thomas Watson Sr., did. He’s just beginning to grasp the potential of these electronic machines, and – although older than most other CEOs is desperate to stay on top. He takes his volatile temper and insecurities out on the one person who could have helped him out of this freefall: his son.
With so much information at our fingertips, it’s hard to remember that we haven’t always walked around with supercomputers in our pockets. In fact, in 1952, CBS thought that Americans would find it SO hard to imagine that a machine could even predict election results accurately that they built a pretend computer and resorted to, well, fake news, to make the public believe. This is Univac vs. IBM, and this is the First Computer War.
For this episode, we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to take a look at the Business Battle between a couple of music moguls, and a father-son team with a new idea for headphones…
Normal programing to resume on Thursday with a look at IBM v Univac.
Jason Mewes and Reed Tucker (writer of the Marvel vs DC series) give their own insight into the superhero wars.
After more than 50 years of fighting for the hearts and attention spans of millions of readers, television viewers, and movie-goers – who wins this war? Is it DC, the original comic company company behind classic American heroes that defined the dreams of many young men and women? Or is it Marvel, the young upstart who changed the game and fought tooth and nail to catch up with DC and create their own cinematic universe?
For now, there’s one clear winner, but expect this war to rage on. No superhero stays dead forever.
It is summer 1978 and DC is hanging by a thread. A few years earlier, Marvel swept past the venerable publisher. The company recently launched a big comeback it dubbed the “DC Explosion.” Lots of new titles. Fresh creative teams.” But the explosion quickly becomes an implosion. Due to sluggish sales, DC suddenly axes some 40 percent of its titles and lay off a huge portion of its staff. A dark cloud settles over the office. But there’s hope.
It’s 1970 and the unthinkable just happened. Jack Kirby, one of the men who made Marvel, has defected to DC. With him he brought an idea that may just end Marvel for good. But as soon as DC seems to be pulling back into the lead, something else goes wrong – there’s a spy in their midst.
As Marvel’s richer storylines captivate more readers, DC just can’t keep up, or fully understand Marvel’s success. They even try directly copying Marvel’s style, but go about it in the worst way. Just when it looks like DC’s days at the top are numbered, they throw one final Hail Mary that steals away one of Marvel’s finest artists.