Marc Andreessen

Marc L. Andreessen
Andreessen at the Tech Crunch40 conference, in 2007.
Born	July 9, 1971 (1971-07-09) (age 40) Cedar Falls, Iowa
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Known for	Mosaic, founder of Netscape
Net worth	US$253 million (2004)[1]

Marc Andreessen ( /ænˈdriːsɨn/ an-dree-sən; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, software engineer, and multi-millionaire best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.^[2] He founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. He is also a co-founder of Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites. He sits on the board of directors of Facebook,^[3] eBay,^[4] and HP,^[5] among others. Andreessen is a frequent keynote speaker and guest at Silicon Valley conferences. He is one of only six inductees in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame announced at the first international conference on the World Wide Web in 1994.^[6][7]

Early life and education

Andreessen was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and raised in New Lisbon, Wisconsin.^[8] He received his Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate, he interned one summer at IBM in Austin, Texas, United States. He also worked at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where he became familiar with Tim Berners-Lee's open standards for the World Wide Web. Andreessen and a full-time salaried co-worker Eric Bina worked on creating a user-friendly browser with integrated graphics that would work on a wide range of computers. The resulting code was the Mosaic web browser.

"In the Web's first generation, Tim Berners-Lee launched the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and HTML standards with prototype Unix-based servers and browsers. A few people noticed that the Web might be better than Gopher.

In the second generation, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed NCSA Mosaic at the University of Illinois. Several million then suddenly noticed that the Web might be better than sex.

In the third generation, Andreessen and Bina left NCSA to found Netscape..."

Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, August 21, 1995, Vol. 17, Issue 34. ^[9]

Netscape

Plaque commemorating the creation of Mosaic web browser by Bina and Andreessen, new NCSA building, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After his graduation from the university in 1993, Andreessen moved to California to work at Enterprise Integration Technologies. Andreessen then met with Jim Clark, the recently departed founder of Silicon Graphics. Clark believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and suggested starting an Internet software company. Soon Mosaic Communications Corporation was in business in Mountain View, California, with Andreessen as cofounder and vice president of technology. The University of Illinois was unhappy with the company's use of the Mosaic name, so Mosaic Communications changed its name to Netscape Communications, and its flagship web browser was the Netscape Navigator.

In the year between the formation of the company and its IPO, Andreessen engaged in extensive public outreach on behalf of his vision of the web browser's potential, something he had in fact done continuously since making the decision to distribute Mosaic for free via the Internet.

One of these events, hosted by Internet commercialization pioneer Ken McCarthy, was captured on video ^[10] and provides a unique look at the state of the web between the time Andreessen and his colleagues launched Mosaic and the time when web browsers and servers became mainstream commercial products. At the time of the recording, Andreessen was 23 years old.

Netscape's IPO in 1995 propelled Andreessen into the public's imagination. Featured on the cover of Time^[11][12] and other publications,^[13] Andreessen became the poster-boy wunderkind of the Internet bubble generation: young, twenty-something, high-tech, ambitious, and worth millions (or billions) of dollars practically overnight.

Netscape's success attracted the attention of Microsoft, which recognized the web's potential and wanted to put itself at the forefront of the rising Internet revolution. Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from Spyglass, Inc., an offshoot of the University of Illinois, and turned it into Internet Explorer. The resulting battle between the two companies became known as the Browser Wars.

Netscape was acquired in 1999 for $4.2 billion by AOL, which made Andreessen its Chief Technology Officer. The same year, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.^[14]

Loudcloud

Andreessen left Netscape to form Loudcloud, a services-based Web hosting company that made an IPO in 2001. Loudcloud sold its hosting business to EDS and changed its name to Opsware in 2003, where Andreessen served as chairman. Opsware was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in September 2007 for approximately $1.6 billion.

Current ventures

.

Andreessen co-founded Ning^[15] and is an investor in social news website Digg and several other early-stage technology startups, like Plazes, Netvibes, CastTV and Twitter. His latest project is the RockMelt browser launched in 2010.^[16]

He serves on the board of Facebook,^[2] eBay, Kno^{[citation needed]}, Hewlett-Packard, Bump, TinyCo, and Mixed Media Labs.^[17] Before it went defunct, he was on the board of Open Media Network, a combined Kontiki (VeriSign) client and media player, launched in 2005.

On July 5, 2009, Andreessen announced along with his longtime business partner Ben Horowitz, the formation of their venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, aimed purely at investing in the best new entrepreneurs, products, and companies in the information technology industry.^[18] On September 1, 2009, an investor group including Andreessen Horowitz acquired a majority stake in Skype Limited.^[19] In 2010, an investor group including Andreessen Horowitz invested $46 million into Kno, Inc., a digital education platform company.

Personal life

Andreessen married Laura Arrillaga in 2006.^[20] She is the founder of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund and the daughter of Silicon Valley real estate billionaire John Arrillaga.

References

1. ^ "Rich kids The Google guys soar toward the top and a few humbled highfliers make comebacks. The biggest news: The appearance of some surprising mogulettes. (Welcome aboard, Mary-Kate and shley!)". CNN. 2004-09-20. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/09/20/381152/index.htm. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Dan Frommer. "Marc Andreessen Joins Facebook Board". Alleyinsider.com. http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/6/marc-andreessen-joins-facebook-board. Retrieved 2008-10-05. 
3. ^ Facebook.com
4. ^ Investor.ebay.com
5. ^ Baldwin, Clare (2009-09-17). "HP snags Web pioneer Andreessen for board". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNewsTechMediaTelco/idUSTRE58G6VF20090917. 
6. ^ Robert Cailliau (May 1994). "WWW94 Awards". CERN. http://www94.web.cern.ch/WWW94/Awards0529.html. Retrieved 2011-09-25. 
7. ^ "The World-Wide Web Hall of Fame". Best of the Web Directory. 1994. http://botw.org/1994/awards/fame.html. Retrieved 2011-09-25. 
8. ^ Simone Payment, Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark: The Founders of Netscape, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006, p. 15. ISBN 9781404207196.
9. ^ Roads and Crossroads of Internet History Chapter 4: Birth of the Web
10. ^ The First Internet Marketing Conference, San Francisco, 1994. Video.google.com. February 22, 2006. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5046297730700144952. Retrieved 2008-10-05. 
11. ^ "Netscape's Marc Andreessen". Time magazine. 1996-02-19. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101960219,00.html. 
12. ^ "At just 24, he appeared--barefoot and wearing a crown--on the cover of Time." Steve Hamm (1998-04-13). "The Education of Marc Andreessen". Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/1998/15/topstory.htm. 
13. ^ Alan Levenson (photo credit) (1998-04-13). "04/13/19 Cover Story". Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/1998/15/b3573002.htm. 
14. ^ "1999 Young Innovators Under 35: Marc Andreessen, 28". Technology Review. 1999. http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=518. Retrieved August 14, 2011. 
15. ^ "Ning: About: Our Company". About.ning.com. http://about.ning.com/. Retrieved 2008-10-05. 
16. ^ "Mosaic Developer, Netscape Founder Working on New Browser". 2009-08-14. http://www.osnews.com/story/21994/Mosaic_Developer_Netscape_Founder_Working_on_New_Browser. 
17. ^ "TinyCo Board of Directors and Advisors". http://www.tinyco.com/about.php. 
18. ^ "Introducing our new venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz". 2009-07-05. http://blog.pmarca.com/2009/07/introducing-our-new-venture-capital-firm-andreessen-horowitz.html. 
19. ^ "eBay Inc. Signs Definitive Agreement to Sell Skype in Deal Valuing Communications Business at $2.75 Billion". Business Wire. 2009-09-01. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090901005931&newsLang=en. Retrieved 2009-09-01. 
20. ^ Michelle Quinn, "Andreessen Casts a Wide Net", Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2007, Business section.

External links

• pmarca, Andreesen's blog, launched June 2007
• Michael Moritz interviews Marc Andreesen et al. at TechCrunch40 conference video
• First Internet Marketing Conference, San Francisco, 1994 Video includes Andreesen discussing Mosaic. See also: Internet Marketing Conference
• Ning Social Network Creation service
• PBS mini-bio
• Biography of Marc Andreesen Ibiblio.com
• Opsware Inc On the record: Marc Andreessen Interview re: successor to Loudcloud. December 7, 2003. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
• Netscape pioneers launch free content network CNET News.com. John Borland, April 25, 2005. Accessed 2007-04-15.
• Open Source Conversations 2005-10-19 Interview with Marc Andreessen
• Interview with Marc Andersen on Charlie Rose
• MP3 / OGG EdTechLive.com audio interview with Marc on education, free and open source software, and social networking
• Under construction Website for Andreessen Horowitz

Persondata
Name	Andreessen, Marc
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Date of birth	1971-07-09
Place of birth	Cedar Falls, Iowa
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