Andreessen Horowitz
Between 2005 and 2009, Andreessen and longtime business partner Ben Horowitz separately and together invested $4 million in 45 start-ups that included Twitter and Qik. The two became well known as super angel investors. On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz announced their Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The firm invests in entrepreneurs, products, and companies in the information technology industry.
Begun with an initial capitalization of $300 million, within three years the firm grew to $2.7 billion under management across three funds. Andreessen Horowitz’s portfolio holdings include Facebook, Foursquare, GitHub, Pinterest and Twitter.
On September 1, 2009, an investor group that included Andreessen Horowitz acquired a majority stake in Skype for $2.75 billion, which was considered risky. The deal paid off in May 2011 when Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion. Additionally, Andreessen and Horowitz made personal investments in headset maker Jawbone in 2006. The firm announced a $49 million investment in Jawbone in March 2011. In February 2011, Andreessen Horowitz’s $80 million investment in Twitter made it the first venture firm that holds stock in all four of the highest-valued privately held social media companies: Facebook, Groupon, Twitter and Zynga.
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