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The Problem With Marc Andreessen

blogs.reuters.com

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Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#31

Post by waterlesscloud »

mcphilip wrote: post #29
waterlesscloud wrote: post #10

The article presents an interesting point of view that I think is probably goes too far. It's not Marc's fault if the giant lumbering behemoths that buy companies don't know what to do with them. That's almost intrinsic in their natures, actually, that they'll screw it up. Even the best tech companies do it time and again, and with very good properties. But this line in particular stands out- "...buy its stake in the…

A recent WSJ article uses the same terminology [1]. Also, it's common to refer to things as shadowy in financial markets. Shadow banking system, dark pools of liquidity, etc. Calling something a shadow market is a way to describe a market characterized by asymmetric information, basically. [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870389970457620...

Fair point, though I do think there's a notable difference in implications of "shadow market" and "shadowy market", more than the one extra letter would indicate.

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#34

Post by wmf »

ma2rten wrote: post #23
unreal37 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a point in the original article that is perhaps overstated but nonetheless mainly true - Andreessen is being hailed as one of the great entrepreneurs of our time by Wired. But really, his main skill is building companies that don't make much money and selling them to other companies. He has never really created anything of long-term value. He's no Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.

And why is this a bad thing? I don't see why it makes a difference if the company continues to exist on it's own or as part of another company.

True. I think the point is more that these companies made no profits while they were independent and then continued to make no profits after they were acquired; thus in retrospect the acquirers must have overpaid.

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#36

Post by smtf »

rollypolly wrote: post #6

they’re primarily interested in buying into any company, no matter how flash-in-the-pan, where Andreessen Horowitz can exit its investment for a large multiple of whatever it bought in at. It's worth mentioning that this behavior isn't unique to Andreessen Horowitz. This also makes me wonder if this type of attitude might be hurting the long term prospects of our economy.

I had similar thoughts while reading the article. If the market is rewarding people who are not creating long term value, where does that leave innovators that do?

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#37

Post by dredmorbius »

smacktoward wrote: post #26
ggchappell wrote: post #17

As long as we're being accurate: > His single greatest achievement — the creation of the world’s first web browser, Mosaic — took place under the auspices of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. All correct, except for "first". The world's first web browser was WorldWideWeb[1], written by Tim Berners-Lee. But I suppose it is true that Mosaic was the first browser that got…

If we want to really get pedantic, Mosaic was a "first" -- the first WWW browser to support embedding inline images in Web pages. Previous browsers were text-only; you could post images, but they could only be linked to, not displayed directly inside a page. That made the WWW too similar to Gopher ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29 ) to really break out in popularity. Mosaic's support for inline gra…

The modifier you're looking for is "first graphical WWW browser".

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#38

Post by dredmorbius »

rollypolly wrote: post #6

they’re primarily interested in buying into any company, no matter how flash-in-the-pan, where Andreessen Horowitz can exit its investment for a large multiple of whatever it bought in at. It's worth mentioning that this behavior isn't unique to Andreessen Horowitz. This also makes me wonder if this type of attitude might be hurting the long term prospects of our economy.

Yes, it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#39

Post by patmeckham »

The problem with Andreeson is he doesn't aim to build anything that is built to last.

Having his creations be acquired for substantial sums by nervous corporations (who proceed to let them die) serves no one but Andreeson himself and his investors.

As a consumer, I value programs like netpbm, feh, ffmpeg and mplayer far more than Netscape and all the monolithic browser crap that has followed. I can rely on the former programs year after year.

By contrast, Andreeson offers little to consumers. His best programmer at Netscape was put out of job and now runs a nightclub. I think that says it all. Andreeson is not improving the world of software and technology. He has no intention of building things that last. He's in it to make a quick buck. Quality and consumers be damned.

Re: The Problem With Marc Andreessen

#40

Post by jmj42 »

unreal37 wrote: post #20
blader wrote: post #13

I don't understand. The man created the web browser, built multiple billion dollar companies, angel invested and sits on the board of Facebook, and is now one of the most well known VCs in the world - and this is saying what - that he's not as good as Felix thinks he could be? What the hell has Felix Salmon ever done? I'm seeing more and more of this: pundits and armchair entrepreneurs online who just can't help but…

I think there is a point in the original article that is perhaps overstated but nonetheless mainly true - Andreessen is being hailed as one of the great entrepreneurs of our time by Wired. But really, his main skill is building companies that don't make much money and selling them to other companies. He has never really created anything of long-term value. He's no Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.

> He has never really created anything of long-term value

Except HP Server Automation[1], HP Operations Orchestration[2], HP Network Automation[3], and that's just Opsware products. That doesn't touch on the lasting transformational aspects of his work at UIUC, or Netscape.

[1] http://www8.hp.com/emea_middle_east/en/software/software-pro... [2] http://www8.hp.com/emea_middle_east/en/software/software-pro... [3] http://www8.hp.com/emea_middle_east/en/software/software-pro...

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