Sunday, December 27, 2009, 10:12PM ET - U.S. Markets Closed.

Facebook Going Public? No, But They Could, Andreessen Says

Posted Jul 06, 2009 02:33pm EDT by Sarah Lacy in Investing, Internet, Media, Newsmakers, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs, Products and Trends

Marc Andreessen is a Web optimist. Not only does he believe in the medium’s innate ability to constantly reinvent itself – making entrepreneurs and investors all the more billions in the process—but he doesn’t worry about Web hot shots like Twitter and Facebook’s ability to turn their outsized audiences into big businesses either.

And Andressen and his investing partner Ben Horowitz should know. They have stakes in Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg and other hot names; Andreessen is the sole outside board member of Facebook and co-founded his own Web 2.0 startup called Ning, which was valued at $500 million at its last funding round.

In this clip, Andressen dishes details on each of these high-profile companies and explains why Twitter and Facebook are still no-brainer investments, why LinkedIn and Facebook could go public any time they want, and why Digg’s best days are in front of it—not behind it.

25 Comments

Pieter
Pieter - Monday July 06, 2009 03:02PM EDT

In what kind of world do these people live?? But I understand this guy, he has to sell the bullshit to other 'investors' later on..

zbc407
zbc407 - Monday July 06, 2009 03:04PM EDT

Uhhh, ok. Was that supposed to be informative?

Pieter
Pieter - Monday July 06, 2009 03:18PM EDT

The interview is great, it's all informative, all nice people, the lady is great. I'm not a negative person, just don't understand all these companies that don't need to make money. Didn't we have that in the late 90's???? We all know how that ended..

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 06, 2009 03:20PM EDT

what a bunch of arrogant fools... Andreesen is living in a pre-2000 world, his time is up. why are people even talking to this guy. Hello, news flash Mark, it ain't about eyeballs!

michael p
michael p - Monday July 06, 2009 03:34PM EDT

learn how to make a product we can put in our hand, something we need like a cheeper car or fuel. That is our problem we need these kind of brains working on how to move people without wasteing engery and in a green way Tec is nice but what do we have. We need to work and make products. Than we can afford to visit on the internet

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 06, 2009 03:37PM EDT

So Obama was born in Kenya?.....That depends on what the meaning of the word was is.......Reedersong

Mike
Mike - Monday July 06, 2009 03:47PM EDT

This guy is crazy... simply crazy... of course you'll have to sell advertising to monitize twitter. They had better get to it - the fad won't last forever my friend.

Mike
Mike - Monday July 06, 2009 03:55PM EDT

Well... watch how fast people will move on from these social networks and fads when you flood the channel with advertising. Couldn't make money with Myspace, won't make money with the rest of these fads. What a joke...

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 06, 2009 03:56PM EDT

Bimbo Sarah Lacy is really getting fat - what happened to her? and her voice is shot. What an awful croaking sound. She should hang it up and go home. It's been nice not having her posts on here very much. Why doesn't she leave for good?

Mike
Mike - Monday July 06, 2009 04:01PM EDT

Good point Pieter, this was an infomercial to attract more investors to his venture fund coffers. What kind of investor is NOT intersted in seeing their investment pay off - as quickly as possible and as much as possible. Take these fads public before the sun sets on them... "Linked In will put the job boards of of business... " Oh brother, well I guess you think twitter will put the cell phone out of business too. Keep reading your own marketing material brother.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday July 06, 2009 04:02PM EDT

What a useless, gratuitous chit-chat session! Who cares!!! Mr. Bald Head Monotone Talk Fast and the Rona Barrett of the valley, Sarah B00bs Lacy. What a waste of time, bandwidth and everything else. Can't you people get a life and stop putting out drivel like this, pretending that it matters???

Mike
Mike - Monday July 06, 2009 04:09PM EDT

Let me see, i'll speculate on an internet start up and NOT worry about whether my inestment is going to pay off...oh boy... what a hack. Not only would I want my money out of these fads ASAP, but I want my 400% return along with it!

Mike
Mike - Monday July 06, 2009 04:16PM EDT

My gosh, if is the best thing going, the 'cutting edge' of the WWW world we are in a world of hurt. This guy is a hack - basically 'pre-selling' his investors on not getting any return on their angel investment... well he's getting paid by the money coming in, not the money going out. Hack.

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Monday July 06, 2009 05:21PM EDT

Without the net its all blue cheese dressing and rotten tomatoes...I yie yie...Later Gang!

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Monday July 06, 2009 06:21PM EDT

It all yap..yap......

Kurtisj
Kurtisj - Monday July 06, 2009 06:48PM EDT

Monetization? No problem at all when there are accelerating numbers of users. Just ask News Corp about MySpace. Right.

GerritD
GerritD - Monday July 06, 2009 07:24PM EDT

they just want MORE yachts and Picassos... Hope they crash and burn after going public. GREEDY "fuchs"

Ken
Ken - Monday July 06, 2009 09:21PM EDT

Nobrainer to do a business interview about the merits of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Digg. As long as they are still private there an't no way for me to make a buck here. LOL

justtradewith.us
justtradewith.us - Monday July 06, 2009 11:33PM EDT

I don't see how a site like linkedin wouldnt put job boards out of business... Seems to me that site/service is incredibly valuable

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Monday July 06, 2009 11:45PM EDT

frankmargel_com at twitter...let's tweet gang...later

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