Brad Jacobs on His Big Bet on Building Insulation
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, I'm Stephen Carroll. I'm in Brussels, where many of Europe's biggest decisions get made.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the All Thoughts Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway. And I'm Joe Weisenthal. Joe, we like talking about the old economy on this podcast, right? I don't even think when people use that term, old economy, I think it's kind of unfair. It's funny. I was literally about to respond and say that maybe like this whole old economy, new economy distinction, it's a little unfair. The old economy is still here. It's not, you know. It's still with us. It's not generative AI, but it's arguably, maybe it's even more important. The things that we call the old economy, you know? You couldn't have the new economy without cooling and heating. This is exactly what I was going to say, because the old economy and the actual business of making things and moving things, heating and cooling, is very much enmeshed with the new economy, which is all about generative AI.
And in order to have generative AI, you need data centers, right? And if there's one thing we know about data centers, it's that they consume vast amounts of both building material and electricity. Right. Yeah, heating and cooling. So, yes, you're absolutely right. We will no longer use the slur old economy. We will find some other word. But, yes, we like talking about industries in which physical things get built and then sold at a higher price from which they were built from and how these things actually work. Yes, indeed. So we are going to be talking about that today. We also like occasionally talking about deals, and it's not every day that we get to talk about a deal that has literally just been announced and is, I think, one of the biggest deals that we've actually seen recently.
That's right. It's a deal talk. Let's do it. Okay, so we do, in fact, have the perfect guest. We're going to be speaking with Brad Jacobs. He's been on the show before, and he is, of course, the CEO and founder of QXO, which has just announced a huge deal to buy a company called Top Build in the insulation space. They're paying $17 billion, and at the end... of this acquisition. They expect to be the second largest publicly traded building products distributor in North America. So truly a melding of mergers and again, the old slash new economy. Brad, welcome back to All Thoughts. Thanks so much for coming on. Oh, my pleasure. Great to be here. Congrats on the deal. The first question I have to ask is, is it even accurate to call this an acquisition right now?
Because if you're paying $17 billion for top build, looking at QXO's market cap, you guys are at like $17 billion as well. This looks like a merger. This is so big. This basically looks like a merger. Yeah, a merger. I'll go with merger. Merger's fine. We're putting together two great companies and forming an even greater one. You know what's funny? I hadn't heard of Top Build up until, you know, this morning or sorry, yesterday when the news came out that you're going to buy it. You know what I was thinking about? Like America's incredible. Like this company, so it stocked now with the premium that's baked in today, trading at 484.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:01
2
How does Brad Jacobs define the old economy versus the new economy?
6:01–11:21
3
What recent acquisition did QXO announce and why is it significant?
11:21–22:58
4
What are the synergies expected from the acquisition of TopBuild?
22:58–32:36
5
What role do data centers play in the insulation market's growth?
32:36–34:45
6
How does the insulation market differ between residential and commercial sectors?
34:45–44:01
Speakers
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