Business Wars
632 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 12.2K ratingsNetflix 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.
New episodes come out Wednesdays for free. Binge new full seasons early and ad-free, plus get exclusive past seasons, only with Wondery+.
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Episodes
Nintendo vs Sony - Interview with Vance Wallace | 7
June 05, 2018 07:05 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBWe're wrapping our coverage of the console wars between Nintendo and Sony. David is joined by Vance Wallace, who knows video games from both sides of the controller. In the '90s, Vance was one of the best players in the world for Quake. He's also a game designer who worked on the first Lara Croft Tomb Raider games for Nintendo Wii. Support us by supporting our sponsors! Dollar Shave Club - Get your starter pack for just $5 by going to DollarShaveClub.com/BW.
Gregor Mendel vs the World - American Innovations | 1
May 10, 2018 07:05 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBHost David Brown interviews Steven Johnson, the host of the new podcast American Innovations. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The First Computer War - Computing Gets Personal | 6
May 08, 2018 07:05 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBAfter 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! Support us by supporting our sponsors! S...
The First Computer War - Betting the Store | 5
May 03, 2018 07:05 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBIt’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 co...
The First Computer War - Abdication | 4
May 01, 2018 07:05 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBIn 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 its success. But over at IBM, a company that doesn't allow its 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 fee...
The First Computer War - IBM versus The UNIVAC | 3
April 26, 2018 07:05 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBWhat’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? Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C...
The First Computer War - Father, Son, and The Future | 2
April 24, 2018 07:05 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBHow 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. Support us by supporting our sponso...
The First Computer War - The Electronic Brain | 1
April 19, 2018 07:05 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBWith 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. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privac...
Marvel vs DC - Interview with Jason Mewes and Reed Tucker | 7
April 12, 2018 07:05 - 43 minutes - 40 MBWhat's that? Up in the sky? It's another episode of Business Wars. Today we're talking to two super guests, Reed Tucker is a journalist living in New York City, and the author of the book Slugfest: Inside the Epic 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC and! Reed is the author of the Marvel/DC episodes of Business Wars. After we talk to Reed we sit down with Jason Mewes. Jason, or Jay, as you may know him, is a comic book fanatic and long time Kevin Smith collaborator. You've seen his...
Marvel vs DC - The Cinematic Universe | 6
April 10, 2018 07:05 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBAfter 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 rag...
Marvel vs DC - Big Screen Heroes | 5
April 05, 2018 07:05 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBAppearances on radio programs, television shows and thousands of comic books - all just another day in the life of a superhero. But to get a larger than life hero onto a larger than life screen, there’s one secret ingredient: verisimilitude. As both companies fight for box office domination, a power player from our Netflix/Blockbuster series reveals one company to be just another cold, corporate machine. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.co...
Marvel vs DC - Schemes, Scans, and Double Crosses | 4
April 03, 2018 07:05 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBIt’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. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Marvel vs DC - Copycat | 3
March 29, 2018 07:05 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MBAs 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. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-n...
Marvel vs DC - The Fantastic Mr. Lee | 2
March 27, 2018 07:05 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBWe’ve talked about several wars on this series, but here’s a first: DC and Marvel engaging with each other, sniping, making fun, and getting their fans involved in the argument. A series of editor’s letters, guest columns, and fan mail printed in the comics themselves has everyone choosing sides. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Marvel vs DC - Origin Stories | 1
March 21, 2018 07:05 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBIn the early 1960s, the Space Race was on, Chubby Checkers got everyone doin’ the twist and Superman was turning 25. DC has it all - a legacy comic, the talented writers and illustrators, and plush offices in Manhattan. Marvel is around but it’s much smaller. They only have one full time employee, actually. Have you heard of Stan Lee? He WAS Marvel for a long time, and in 1961 he wrote a story that would revolutionize comics forever. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Priv...
Nike vs Adidas - Interview with Liz Dolan and David Meltzer | 7
March 20, 2018 07:05 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBToday we talked to Liz Dolan, former Nike CMO, and David Meltzer, sports marketing guru and agent about this vicious war. If you loved them here, you’ll love their podcasts even more. Liz co-hosts Safe For Work, a show that answers your burning business questions and provides the advice you need to keep your office drama-free, and Satellite Sisters, where she got to sit down with Phil Knight and talk about Nike with the man himself. You can listen to that interview here. You can h...
Nike vs Adidas - The Defectors | 6
March 15, 2018 07:05 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MBThe rivalry between Nike and Adidas has been intense for decades, but always respectful. But with intensity comes… defectors. Just three at the beginning, who set out to create a “Disneyland for designers.” And it worked. For the first time in a long time, the Swoosh was outperformed by three little white stripes. But it’s not all bad. The constant competition drove both companies to produce better shoes, better apparel, and have made each other better businesses. As the sneaker wa...
Nike vs Adidas - Rebound | 5
March 13, 2018 07:05 - 24 minutes - 22 MBNike, the late starter struck gold with its “Just Do It” campaign. Launched in 1988, the shoe giant finally had a tagline as good as its shoes. Meanwhile, Adidas, the brand that started and found success long before Nike was even a dream, finds itself as the underdog. The American offices feel like a startup, and is passed between the hands of former Nike execs and European businessmen. What does it take to go from a million-dollar company to a billion-dollar company? Adidas has to ...
Nike vs Adidas - Nike Air | 4
March 08, 2018 08:05 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBEvery new Nike employee gets a list of principles that serves as the company’s philosophy. One: Our business is change. Two: We’re on offense, all the time. With those principles Nike sprinted from $29 million in revenue in 1973 to more than $850 million by 1983. But the biggest boost for Nike was an up and coming athlete. Like Jesse Owens fifty years before, a young Michael Jordan would carry a fledgling shoe brand to new heights. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Priva...
Nike vs Adidas - Walking Billboards | 3
March 06, 2018 08:05 - 20 minutes - 19 MBAs long as there have been professional sports, there have been professional athletes, willing to accept money to wear certain brands, but the biggest endorsement deals were only made possible by a mid-20th century invention: the television. Fans realized they could tune in to see their favorite athletes almost any day of the week. Brands realized they just got hundreds of walking billboards showing the capabilities of their athletic gear in action… and it’s a race to see who can re...
Nike vs Adidas - The Starting Line | 2
March 01, 2018 08:05 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBRudi and Adi Dassler started the “Dassler Business” in the 1920s in their parent’s garage, recycling materials from WWI military gear and uniforms. They got a pair of their track spikes on an athlete named Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics and the company took off… until WWII. The war may have been over for Germany, but the rivalry between Adi and Rudi was just heating up. Rudi left to start his own company, Puma, and Adi created Adidas. 50 years later, with a waffle iron and inve...
Nike vs Adidas - Sneakerheads | 1
February 27, 2018 08:05 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBIn 2015, Kanye West turned his back on Nike, an all out battle in the ongoing war for sneaker supremacy. Nike and Adidas are two multinational companies worth billions in an industry estimated to be valued at $220 Billion by 2020 (which is double the GDP of Ukraine) but that begs the question - Why are companies sinking so much money into mesh and rubber for your feet? In this series of Business Wars, we'll find out. This is Episode 1 of a 7-part series on the brutal business battl...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - Interview with Rich Greenfield | 8
February 22, 2018 08:05 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBRich Greenfield is a tech and media analyst with BTIG who’s been covering this battle in some capacity for decades. We had the chance to talk to him in depth on today’s episode. Follow Rich on Twitter @RichBTIG Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Netflix vs Blockbuster - The Way We Watch | 7
February 20, 2018 08:05 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBNetflix goes from being a streaming company to a movement in which consumers all over the world decide what show to watch -- and when and how they watch them. The future that Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph envisioned two decades earlier has arrived. The unfettered reign of cable television has ended. The war for streaming viewers will become richer. And more cutthroat. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy No...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - Binge | 6
February 15, 2018 08:05 - 23 minutes - 21.1 MBHollywood 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 on to something. All of their studies and focus groups revealed something new: viewers who binged content formed an emotional attachment to Netflix. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.co...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - HBO Gets In The Ring | 5
February 13, 2018 08:05 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBWe 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, become the standard by which all other cable companies would have to measure themselves - after all, it's not TV. It's HBO. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - The Digital Divide | 4
February 08, 2018 08:05 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBYou know that 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. Support us by supporti...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - Dirty Tricks | 3
February 06, 2018 08:15 - 22 minutes - 20.2 MBThinking like your enemy is the best way to beat them, and during the war, Blockbuster tried every trick in the books 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. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privac...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - Origins | 2
February 06, 2018 08:12 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBAfter 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. Support us by supporting our sponsors! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.c...
Netflix vs Blockbuster - Sudden Death | 1
February 06, 2018 08:10 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBThis is Episode 1 of an 8-part series on the brutal business battle between Netflix and Blockbuster, and later HBO. 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 casualti...
Introducing: Business Wars
January 19, 2018 23:58 - 1 minute - 1.27 MBNetflix-HBO. Nike-Adidas. Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet. Sometimes your attention. Sometimes just the fun of beating the other guy. From Wondery, the network behind Dirty John and American History Tellers. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Introducing Business Wars
January 19, 2018 23:58 - 1 minute - 1.27 MBNetflix-HBO. Nike-Adidas. Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet. Sometimes your attention. Sometimes just the fun of beating the other guy. From Wondery, the network behind Dirty John and American History Tellers.