Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall (Presented by J.P. Morgan)
Ben Gilbert (host), David Rosenthal (host), Jamie Dimon (guest), Ben Gilbert (host), Meredith Kopit Levien (guest), Barry Diller (guest), David Rosenthal (host)
In this episode of Acquired, featuring Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall (Presented by J.P. Morgan) explores acquired goes Broadway: CEOs on risk, media, and disruption Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal stage Acquired as a theatrical live event at Radio City, structured as two acts: a deep leadership interview and a late-night talk-show format after intermission.
Acquired goes Broadway: CEOs on risk, media, and disruption
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal stage Acquired as a theatrical live event at Radio City, structured as two acts: a deep leadership interview and a late-night talk-show format after intermission.
Act One is a sweeping career and strategy discussion with Jamie Dimon, centering on JPMorgan’s rise through disciplined risk management, incentives, and crisis-era acquisitions (Bear Stearns, WaMu, and later First Republic).
Act Two pivots to media and tech: Andrew Ross Sorkin introduces Meredith Kopit Levien, who updates NYT’s transformation into a global digital subscription bundle spanning news, games, and lifestyle—alongside a clear stance on AI, licensing, and the OpenAI/Microsoft lawsuit.
The night closes with Barry Diller reflecting on Hollywood-to-internet-era lessons, why “betting the company” is a mistake for most leaders, and how tech platforms (not studios) now control entertainment economics—plus audience games and surprise cameos (Howard Schultz).
Key Takeaways
Career resets can become strategic reinventions.
Dimon frames his Citi firing as a hit to “net worth, not self-worth,” then deliberately chooses Bank One—a smaller, troubled bank—because it offered true control and a turnaround canvas.
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Risk management is pricing, stress-testing, and surviving fat tails—not avoiding risk.
Dimon emphasizes running stress tests to “worst ever,” avoiding aggressive accounting, and building systems so the firm is still standing when competitors chase peak ROE via leverage.
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Incentives shape behavior; removing ‘side deals’ reduces blow-up risk.
He attributes pre-2008 resilience partly to eliminating banker arrangements that rewarded isolated wins, leverage, and short-term profit pools that encouraged client-harming decisions.
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Crisis acquisitions can be patriotic—and still punish you later.
Dimon describes Bear Stearns as necessary to avert systemic collapse but says subsequent government mortgage actions taught him not to assume future administrations will honor prior “deals.”
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Concentration, not just ‘uninsured deposits,’ drives bank runs.
On SVB/First Republic, Dimon highlights concentrated depositor networks that moved in coordinated fashion, amplified by HTM accounting masking rate risk and delaying market recognition.
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Bundles work when products live in big markets and feed each other’s habit loops.
Levien explains NYT’s growth from ~5M to ~12M subscribers by pairing world-class news with lifestyle “everyday” products (Games, Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic) where entry points cross-pollinate.
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AI is both an accelerant and an existential IP governance fight.
NYT views AI as a tool for accessibility and reporting efficiency, but argues model builders must pay fair value for training data; hence litigation plus selective partnerships (e. ...
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Don’t ‘bet the company’ unless you’re built like Rupert Murdoch.
Diller admires Murdoch’s entrepreneurial gambling but rejects risking a healthy core business on a single moonshot—advocating asymmetric experimentation without existential downside.
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Entertainment shifted from hit-making economics to subscription platform economics.
Diller argues studios absorbed prior tech waves until Netflix (and then Amazon/Apple) arrived with vastly greater resources and different incentives—where the service, not individual hits, is the unit of value.
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Notable Quotes
“It was my net worth, not my self-worth, that was involved.”
— Jamie Dimon
“You want to build a real strong company… not relying on leverage.”
— Jamie Dimon
“I wouldn’t really trust the government again.”
— Jamie Dimon
“We are aiming to be the essential subscription for curious people everywhere.”
— Meredith Kopit Levien
“I think the only thing you don’t do is bet the company.”
— Barry Diller
Questions Answered in This Episode
Dimon: You describe ‘worst ever’ stress tests—what are the specific scenarios you think most banks still underweight today (rates, liquidity, cyber, geopolitics)?
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal stage Acquired as a theatrical live event at Radio City, structured as two acts: a deep leadership interview and a late-night talk-show format after intermission.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Dimon: How would you redesign ‘held-to-maturity’ accounting so it preserves long-term investing without masking solvency and duration risk in a run scenario?
Act One is a sweeping career and strategy discussion with Jamie Dimon, centering on JPMorgan’s rise through disciplined risk management, incentives, and crisis-era acquisitions (Bear Stearns, WaMu, and later First Republic).
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Dimon: You said you’d help again to save the country—but want protection from future punishment. What contractual or legislative structure would actually work in practice?
Act Two pivots to media and tech: Andrew Ross Sorkin introduces Meredith Kopit Levien, who updates NYT’s transformation into a global digital subscription bundle spanning news, games, and lifestyle—alongside a clear stance on AI, licensing, and the OpenAI/Microsoft lawsuit.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Levien: What internal metrics matter most for proving the NYT bundle is “more than the sum of the parts” (cross-engagement, churn reduction, CAC payback, ARPU lift)?
The night closes with Barry Diller reflecting on Hollywood-to-internet-era lessons, why “betting the company” is a mistake for most leaders, and how tech platforms (not studios) now control entertainment economics—plus audience games and surprise cameos (Howard Schultz).
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Levien: Where is the line between AI-as-assistive tooling in the newsroom and AI-generated content that would dilute trust in the Times brand?
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Transcript Preview
I can't believe the show sold out without us telling anyone what's happening.
I know, right? [laughing] I hope, uh, I hope people aren't disappointed.
Should we have told them at least one guest or, like, released a detail or?
Uh, I like it, you know? It's Broadway. It's theater. It's, uh, you're in for a show.
Come see Acquired as a show.
Yep, the suspense, the mystery! Which train are we taking again?
Uh, I think it's the B.
B. B, nice.
New York really does, does feel like the center of everything.
You know the famous New Yorker cartoon about how New Yorkers see the geography of America? [laughing]
No, no, no.
That it's, it's the island of Manhattan in the cartoon, and then there's the Hudson River, and then there's just California on the other side of the Hudson River. There's nothing in between. [laughing] We've got a little bit of time before the show. What do you think about a hot dog?
I'd get a hot dog.
All right, let's do it.
Thank you!
No problem.
It is my favorite thing to do when I come to New York.
It's the best.
Spend some time in Central Park, and you just, like, walk around all day, pop out, get bagels. I was trying to think, what was the first listener live thing we ever did?
I think it was the GeekWire conference in Seattle, and then we did the WeWork in San Francisco in the Tenderloin.
It was about 100 people.
Yep, the PA system went out halfway through.
Someone ran to Best Buy, I think.
Yep, picked up a new PA system. That was amazing. We've come a long way.
We've come a long way. Should we do it?
Let's do it.
[upbeat music] New York City, please put your hands together for Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal! [crowd cheering] Who got the truth? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now? [crowd cheering] Is it you, is it you, is it you? [crowd cheering]
Hello, Acquired listeners. [crowd cheering]
Ooh!
We are so, so excited to have you all here tonight for our live podcast episode recording. [crowd cheering] So all right, David, should we do it?
Let's do it. [microphone feedback] Um, I think this was better in theory. I'm not sure... It feels like kind of a waste of all this, this stage, this Radio City Music Hall that we have here.
I think you're right. Should we, um, should we do the other thing?
Yeah, maybe we should do the, the other thing instead. Let's do that. Hey, Mike, uh, could you help us level it up a little bit in here?
I think we can cook something up. [crowd cheering] Radio City! [upbeat music] Are you ready? Who got the truth? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now, now? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Set me down, say it straight, another story on the way. Who got the truth? Who got the truth? [upbeat music] [crowd cheering]
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