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Sell to whom exactly? Marc has also been quoted as saying "Never sell a company while it's still growing." In both cases he seems to ignore the motivation of th

by ojbyrne 18y ago

Sell to whom exactly? Marc has also been quoted as saying "Never sell a company while it's still growing." In both cases he seems to ignore the motivation of the buyer.

jnovek 18y ago
"Sell to whom exactly?" And buy what? I agree with Marc's core premise -- monolithic media is going down -- and I suspect that diversification is the answer. But there doesn't seem to be clear information on where the media markets are headed. Stuff like Hulu and iTunes offer up some clues, but not enough to bet a billion dollar empire on...
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  In my opinion the problems old media have is that they're tied to existing cost structures - too many employees, too many buildings, machinery,... while new media is busy accumulating all those same things in order to gain credibility, reliability, and scale and to look like real businesses. What's going to happen is that old media will shed those old costs and new media will grow and accumulate new costs until it is no longer possible to tell the difference between them.
nostrademons 18y ago
Sell to the people who say he's full of hot air and traditional media will be around for a long time. Saying that one should sell or buy a security is always an exercise in predicting the future. When you say "sell", it's shorthand for "In the future, there will be fewer buyers and more sellers for this than there are now, so the price will go down, so you should unload now while you can still find eager buyers." You could be wrong about your future prediction, in which case you lose money. But if you're right, you stand to profit from all the people who thought you were an idiot. I found it curious that a lot of people seem to think Marc is trying to pump & dump media stocks. He's got plenty of money already, and I bet he dumped all his old media a long time ago. Rather, I think he wants to be seen as the guy who correctly foretold the death of old media - his incentive is to be right, gosh darnit, and not to make a whole lot of money.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  I don't think he's trying to dump old media stocks - he's trying to promote new media. The natural way to do that is to attack the "dinosaurs" that are being replaced.
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    Yeah, I realized after I'd posted that I'd misread the comments in question. Anyway, pumping up new media by attacking old media seems like a pretty risky strategy - investors are just as likely to go to energy or defense or finance or other hot/undervalued sectors than to new media. I think it's more likely Andreesen believes that old media is doomed anyway, and that's why he's interested in replacing it.

by ojbyrne 18y ago

Sell to whom exactly? Marc has also been quoted as saying "Never sell a company while it's still growing." In both cases he seems to ignore the motivation of the buyer.

jnovek 18y ago

"Sell to whom exactly?" And buy what? I agree with Marc's core premise -- monolithic media is going down -- and I suspect that diversification is the answer. But there doesn't seem to be clear information on where the media markets are headed. Stuff like Hulu and iTunes offer up some clues, but not enough to bet a billion dollar empire on...

ojbyrne 18y ago
In my opinion the problems old media have is that they're tied to existing cost structures - too many employees, too many buildings, machinery,... while new media is busy accumulating all those same things in order to gain credibility, reliability, and scale and to look like real businesses. What's going to happen is that old media will shed those old costs and new media will grow and accumulate new costs until it is no longer possible to tell the difference between them.

nostrademons 18y ago

Sell to the people who say he's full of hot air and traditional media will be around for a long time. Saying that one should sell or buy a security is always an exercise in predicting the future. When you say "sell", it's shorthand for "In the future, there will be fewer buyers and more sellers for this than there are now, so the price will go down, so you should unload now while you can still find eager buyers." You could be wrong about your future prediction, in which case you lose money. But if you're right, you stand to profit from all the people who thought you were an idiot. I found it curious that a lot of people seem to think Marc is trying to pump & dump media stocks. He's got plenty of money already, and I bet he dumped all his old media a long time ago. Rather, I think he wants to be seen as the guy who correctly foretold the death of old media - his incentive is to be right, gosh darnit, and not to make a whole lot of money.

ojbyrne 18y ago
I don't think he's trying to dump old media stocks - he's trying to promote new media. The natural way to do that is to attack the "dinosaurs" that are being replaced.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  Yeah, I realized after I'd posted that I'd misread the comments in question. Anyway, pumping up new media by attacking old media seems like a pretty risky strategy - investors are just as likely to go to energy or defense or finance or other hot/undervalued sectors than to new media. I think it's more likely Andreesen believes that old media is doomed anyway, and that's why he's interested in replacing it.