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Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#11

Post by napoleoncomplex »

ghshephard wrote: post #7
[deleted] wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

You didn't bring much to the conversation other than a pithy comment about snapchat/facebook. I'm actually more interested in why people are voting up this article - it really seems to be a "nothing to see here" type of article. Big VC invests money in startup and then liquidates some after solid performance. Seems reasonable to me.

The upvotes are likely from people wondering "is there something to see here?", who want to get HN's two cents on the topic, which turns out to be very boring, as you explained.

Edit: Any reason for the downvote? I genuinely tried to answer ghshephard's question. I don't think it's that off-base that people want to see what the HN community thinks about this piece of news. In other news, I just discovered I'm too sensitive about downvotes :).

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#12

Post by confluence »

MarcusBrutus wrote: post #10
confluence wrote: post #8

Facebook is about 4x over fair value, so it's a pretty decent sale. It's too bad for the public investors that bought that shit up though. There should probably be a basic financial test that people should have to pass before they get access to a brokerage account. At some of the prices I'm seeing stock clearing, it's obvious that the buyers have not actually read any financial reports. Something like a basic written…

Bogus analogy. You have no business repairing airplanes because you may endanger lives. People should be free to squander their money in their folly if they so choose. Otherwise outlaw lottery, gambling and horse-racing as well.

Why not outlaw lottery, gambling and horse-racing?

People misallocating capital is just as dangerous as an airplane mechanic misplacing a bolt on a Cessna. Both actions end up, in the long run, with people dying.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#13

Post by UweSchmidt »

MarcusBrutus wrote: post #10
confluence wrote: post #8

Facebook is about 4x over fair value, so it's a pretty decent sale. It's too bad for the public investors that bought that shit up though. There should probably be a basic financial test that people should have to pass before they get access to a brokerage account. At some of the prices I'm seeing stock clearing, it's obvious that the buyers have not actually read any financial reports. Something like a basic written…

Bogus analogy. You have no business repairing airplanes because you may endanger lives. People should be free to squander their money in their folly if they so choose. Otherwise outlaw lottery, gambling and horse-racing as well.

Society already outlaws or regulates many things to prevent people from hurting themselves.

People are not capable of fully understanding all possible choices in a fully unregulated system, and even less able to consistently act rationally in their, or anyone's best interest.

It is the responsibility of any lawmakers, engineers, experts etc. to design our systems to be safe, transparent and to set the occasional boundary where reasonable.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#14

Post by cdf »

confluence wrote: post #8

Facebook is about 4x over fair value, so it's a pretty decent sale. It's too bad for the public investors that bought that shit up though. There should probably be a basic financial test that people should have to pass before they get access to a brokerage account. At some of the prices I'm seeing stock clearing, it's obvious that the buyers have not actually read any financial reports. Something like a basic written…

So what if you know your balance sheet, income statement, FCF, capex, when you are analysing Enron or Lehman Brothers?

If you are so sure Facebook is overvalued, how big is your short position? Guaranteed win right?

Can you guarantee Microsoft won't swoop in to buy Facebook at 5x over "fair value"?

I think we have reached the point where is conventional wisdom that "professional" fund managers struggle to outperform index funds, so you can mock the financially illiterate, but I hope your investment returns regularly outdo monkeys throwing a dart.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#15

Post by pearjuice »

"A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment"

"By selling some of its holdings, she said the firm is able to return cash to its investors."

welp

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#16

Post by nkohari »

pearjuice wrote: post #15

"A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment" "By selling some of its holdings, she said the firm is able to return cash to its investors." welp

The amount that you misunderstand what you're talking about is staggering.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#17

Post by jf22 »

pearjuice wrote: post #15

"A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment" "By selling some of its holdings, she said the firm is able to return cash to its investors." welp

By selling holdings and not returning cash from new members this scenario is clearly not a pyramid scheme.

The quote from the article makes a comparison to a pyramid scheme impossible.

Are you trolling?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#18

Post by loceng »

nkohari wrote: post #16
pearjuice wrote: post #15

"A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment" "By selling some of its holdings, she said the firm is able to return cash to its investors." welp

The amount that you misunderstand what you're talking about is staggering.

The point is they're not that confident the stock will go up much more. Sure, you could look at it as spreading risk.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#19

Post by josephagoss »

confluence wrote: post #8

Facebook is about 4x over fair value, so it's a pretty decent sale. It's too bad for the public investors that bought that shit up though. There should probably be a basic financial test that people should have to pass before they get access to a brokerage account. At some of the prices I'm seeing stock clearing, it's obvious that the buyers have not actually read any financial reports. Something like a basic written…

This sounds like protecting people from themselves. I disagree and believe people should have easy access to buying shares, if its a disaster only themselves are to blame.

Also it is not the same as repairing an Airplane. If you lose all your money you only hurt yourself and your family. (And thats the way it should be, people should loss if they are stupid with their finances.)

Re: Andreessen Horowitz Sells a Third of its Facebook Shares

#20

Post by blisterpeanuts »

kayoone wrote: post #2

TLDR Nothing to interesting, they got in relatively late and are now selling a part to give it back to investors while still keeping the majority of their shares, so this has nothing todo with them not trusting in Facebooks vision any longer.

But if they still believed in FB's vision, why would they dump so much stock? 1/3 sounds like a lot to me.
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