If you have any examples you think we missed ping us on Slack or email at: We used revenue multiples to estimate the current value of the acquired company, multiplying its current estimated revenue by the market cap-to-revenue multiple of the parent company’s stock. We considered all historical acquisitions - not just technology companies - but may have overlooked some in areas that we know less well.

Naspers’ investment in Tencent and Softbank/Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba are disqualified for this reason. In order to count for our list, acquisitions must be at least a majority stake in the target company (otherwise it’s just an investment).We cover it all - from the '$20m/day' trade that started everything, to Tom Brady & Gisele, to Sam testifying last week in front of Congress. And to do so we're joined by not one but TWO of the very best people in the world to help: FTX's wunderkind CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and special guest host Mario Gabriele from The Generalist, who Sam gave extensive access to FTX's internal data, employees, and investors for his canonical 36,000 word trilogy on the company this past summer. We tell the definitive (audio!) story behind FTX's 'speed run' - how this upstart crypto exchange became the fastest company in history to reach a $25B valuation, just two years after founding. For a broader Acquired discussion on frauds, and specifically the similarities between FTX and Enron, see our November 2022 Enron episode. We’ve decided to leave this episode up in-full as a historical artifact of the industry’s view on FTX at the time. The apparent negligence, fraud and self-dealing at FTX has given us much to reflect on after we - and many others - gave Sam a platform to share his and FTX’s story with all of you. Note: This episode was published on Dec 14, 2021, approximately a year before FTX’s subsequent meltdown.

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