Marc Andreessen Said It So I Don’t Have To
I’ve been chewing on what to say about the Microsoft / Yahoo merger and its impact on entrepreneurship and – more specifically – Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. I was finally gearing up to splat out some of my thoughts on paper, but after reading Marc Andreessen’s brilliant post titled Silicon Valley after a Microsoft / Yahoo merger: a contrarian view, I don’t have to. While I don’t agree with 100% of the things Marc says, he covers all the ground I would have an just saved me 30 minutes of writing.
Brad: Another impact is lots of Yahooligans will leave because of the merger. Some will be lay-offed and others will decide they don't want to work for MSFT. Many will leave with a decent amount of stock option money. Many of these folks will want to reinvest their capital – human and financial – and will do so by starting and/or joining new businesses.
This pattern happens every time there a decent sized tech company is acquired (although sometimes there is a lag due to earnouts).
Brad,
I was thinking the exact same thing. That was a comprehensive post which covered my view. As you remember during Marc has the unique perspective of being on the Netscape side of the Microsoft drubbing in 96-99.