BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Tech Observer >  

Andreessen Facebook A Conflict

Tech Observer

by Laura Rich
Main
First Bytes: Rhapsody and the Labels, Family Guy, BitTorrent, more   Last Bytes: Yahoo, CBS/CNET, Facebook, more....

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Jun 30 2008 12:00am EDT

Andreessen & Facebook: A Conflict?

Kevin Maney dashes off: On the face of it, it appears that Marc Andreessen's presence on Facebook's board would be a conflict of interest. Marc founded Ning, which creates tools that let people build niche social networks. Rapper 50 Cent built a social network for his fans using Ning. And then Facebook is a broad social network.

I tried to ask Marc about this but he didn't want to comment. Someone who knows his thinking well, though, told me this: "Both are consumer Internet companies but doing different things. One is building the definitive, canonical social utility with everyone's real information and social interactions. The other lets users create new social experiences of any form with any design, any feature set, around any topic, and makes no attempt to establish real identity."

Hopefully now Marc will get back to writing his blog, which has been dead in the water since May 27.

Laura Rich is a co-founder of Recessionwire, which provides news, advice, perspective and humor about the recession and the recovery.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Real Business, Real Results
Out of the 'Family'

Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?

Cruz Missile Lands

Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?

Scandal Chic

Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.

spotlight on

Health Care

Bad to the Bone No More

Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad behavior and promote healthier lifestyles. Read More