The Eric Jackson Podcast

Eric goes through his 9 predictions for what will happen in the tech and media worlds in 2018. Will AT&T and Time Warner close? What about Disney and Fox? Will there be more mega-deals? What will happen to Apple? What about the price of cryptocurrencies? Thanks for a great 2017 and all your comments and listens.

John Skipper's shocking resignation as ESPN's President on Monday leaves a number of questions about who the company will pick as his successor and how that will affect ESPN, Disney, and Disney's stock. Eric goes through John's strengths and weaknesses, the short-list of candidates to replace him and gives his prediction of who it will be.

Now that the deal has been finally announced between Fox and Disney, there's been a raft of commentary about it including a lot of off-base information. Eric goes over his top 5 misconceptions about the deal.

Eric spoke with ESPN's Don Van Natta on how he became an investigative reporter, why he switched to ESPN from the New York Times, and his recent detailed pieces on the NFL, Roger Goodell, and Jerry Jones. Thanks to Josh Dickson of Onecast.fm for his help producing. Also, be sure to check out Don's Sunday Long Read newsletter and new podcast as well.

CNBC's David Faber reported on Dec. 5th that Disney is set to announce next week that it's acquiring a set of assets from 21st Century Fox for $60 billion. The assets will help make Disney's planned entertainment and sports OTT apps much more compelling. Faber announced that the deal is set to also include Fox's network of Regional Sports Networks in the deal. Eric discusses the implications of this move.

Eric goes in-depth on why he's excited about Disney's business and how he sees a path for the company to trade to over $200/share by 2020. He goes through the potential value of the old cable assets, new video assets, the growth of the existing assets, and potential M&A to fill out the conglomerate.

Eric spoke to Balaji S. Srinivasan about his company, 21.co, and his recent writings about the blockchain space and tokens. Topics covered include: - what are tokens and why are they important, - what types of assets lend themselves to tokenization, - how is regulation likely to keep up with the growth in the underlying technology, - how should we think about valuing tokens, - is the current interest level in the blockchain warranted given its long-term potential, and - what new cryptocurrencies intrigue him the most. Thanks to Onecast.fm for the pod software used to record this.

Eric caught up with Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse. On January 1st, 2017, XRP’s market cap was $236 million. Today, it’s close to $9 billion. We go over how Brad came to join Ripple, the opportunity of cross-border banking, the criticisms he sometimes hears about Ripple/XRP, and a bit of science fiction future visions for how cryptocurrencies might work in the future. Thanks to Onecast.fm for the pod software. (Due to a software error, there's a lag between Eric's and Brad's voices which makes Eric talk over Brad in several spots. Apologies!)

Horace Dediu of Asymco returns for a 3rd time to the pod to discuss what makes a business idea "disruptive," why eBikes are likely to be adopted en masse in the years ahead, whether cryptocurrencies will be disruptive and why, whether Apple's move into producing content will be disruptive or "me too," and where Apple's next wave of growth for the iPhone will come from. Thanks to Onecast.fm for helping record the pod. (Also check out Episode 18 for a discussion with VC Andrew Parker who also spoke about the potential for eBikes a while ago.)

Eric welcomes Rich Greenfield back to the podcast to have a knock-down drag-out debate about Disney and ESPN. Rich strongly believes that that cable bundle is dying and ESPN has massively overpaid for sports rights. He thinks a big digital player is about to scoop up future sports rights and ESPN will end up blowing a hole in Disney’s future earnings. Eric strongly believes Disney is the premier media company in the world and the fears about ESPN are overblown. Eric argues that ESPN and Disney will be a growth story again. We debate. You decide. Thanks to Onecast.fm for hosting the podcast.

Bill Simmons recently hosted a roundtable podcast with Jim Miller and Bryan Curtis where he critiqued several "mistakes" made by ESPN management over the past two years. Eric lays out some flaws in those major critiques and why ESPN is still well-positioned to succeed from here.

Fox Sports announced the day before July 4th that Jamie Horowitz was leaving the company after only 2 years on the job. His bravado and colorful personality masked some of the big challenges that are facing them for meaningfully improving their ratings. Eric argues that there are no silver bullets for turning it around.

Eric chats with Jeff Macke of Macke Asset Management about what makes a great retailer today and how they’re incorporating CRM, data analytics and location to serve customers in the best way. We cover Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, why Wal-Mart is well-positioned, why many retailers are stuck performing for Wall Street instead of the customer, and what to watch for when the next great American retailer emerges as a public company.

Eric caught up with Cycle Media's Jason Stein about a busy week in tech, media and advertising including: what happened at Cannes Lions, Instagram Stories blowing away Snap, why Vice is worth so much more than Buzzfeed or Vox, what he would do if in charge of Bill Simmons Media Group, new changes to the board of Spotify, and how he makes viral video content at Cycle

Critics conclude that investors must be placing too much hope in these growth stocks. Some wonder if this hope will all come crashing down as it did following the '90s dot-com bust. There's a good case to be made that it's not a bubble of the biggest tech stocks; it's that the biggest tech stocks have grown to another level in the last few years.