BROADCASTS.com

Ben & David break down Jet.com\u2019s meteoric rise, culminating in Walmart\u2019s blockbuster $3B+ acquisition of the company just two years after its founding. Will we look back on this deal as an \u2018Instagram-like\u2019 bargain or a \u2018Pets.com'-sized blunder? And most importantly, can *anyone* compete with Amazon going forward? We speculate wildly.\xa0

Sponsors:
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

• Community spotlight: Nowdue, a super fast invoicing platform for teams on Slack. Invoice like it\u2019s the future! This looks very cool.\xa0
• Jet\u2019s deep origins in Founder & CEO Marc Lore\u2019s first two companies, The Pit and Quidsi (aka, diapers.com)\xa0
• Lore\u2019s \xa0chance run-in with Jeff Bezos at a school picnic in Seattle in the early 2000\u2019s
• Amazon's dramatic acquisition of Quidsi in 2010, including Bezos\u2019 admonition to Amazon corp dev to keep Quidsi from being bought by Walmart under any circumstances (covered well in \xa0The Everything Store)
• Lore\u2019s \xa0less-than-favorable opinion of Amazon's culture
• \xa0Lore's vision of Jet as an \u2018online Costco\u2019 that can directly with Amazon on price by selling goods to a \u201chuge middle-class of people" at effectively zero margin, and make profit on membership fees
• Jet\u2019s \xa0huge, \xa0pre-launch \xa0fundraising rounds, and subsequent \xa0massively promoted public launch in July 2015
• Jet\u2019s pivot in October 2015 to \xa0drop the membership model (their only profit engine), and subsequent massive growth (but also accompanying massive losses)\xa0
• 'Admitting defeat\u201d to Amazon in July 2016? Immediately followed by the \xa0blockbuster $3B+ Walmart acquisition announcement
• Is e-commerce really a winner-take-all business and will Amazon just take over the world? Featuring liberal citations (again) of Ben Thompson's Aggregation Theory and the importance of customer experience.\xa0
• Is there any path for Walmart & Jet to compete effectively with Amazon? Is Marc Lore Walmart\u2019s only hope?
• Fantastic \xa0interview with Tim Cook discussing (among other things) the massive amount of growth still left in the internet\xa0

\xa0 Followups:\xa0

• Lucasfilm: Star Wars Rouge One trailer drops! Featuring a strong female protagonist!\xa0

\xa0 New section: Hot Takes! (thank you @cteitzel on Slack for the idea)\xa0

• \xa0Verizon/AOL acquires Yahoo!
• Lyft reportedly turns down acquisition offer from GM
• \xa0Microsoft acquires Beam
• \xa0Randstad acquires Monster.com\xa0

\xa0 The Carve Out:

• Ben: Michael Mauboussin\u2019s Talk at Google and Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors after thirty years of honing his craft
• David: Strava, the fantastic social fitness-tracking app
• None this week\u2026 coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!