Now Andreessen Horowitz owns a piece of Twitter, too

Apparently concerned that there are still one or two prominent tech companies that it hasn’t invested in, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has purchased more than $80 million of Twitter stock.

It’s not a direct investment in the company, but rather a stock purchase through the secondary markets where early investors and employees can sell off their shares. Twitter raised a $200 million round late last year, but Andreessen Horowitz did not participate.

All Things Digital broke the news about the investment, and Andreessen Horowitz partner Margit Wennmachers confirmed the story.

With this investment, Andreessen Horowitz can add Twitter to the formidable list of big-name tech companies that it has invested in, which also includes Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Skype, and Zynga. (Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, one of the firm’s founding partners, was initially involved with Facebook as an advisor to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, and Zuckerberg appointed him to Facebook’s board of directors, but the firm also started buying up Facebook shares on the secondary markets last year.) And that’s not counting all the slightly-less-famous-but-still-notable startups it has backed.

And the firm has only been in business for less than two years. It has also raised nearly $1 billion to make investments, most recently in a $650 million fund. Earlier this year, the firm said that it models itself on the Creative Arts Agency, a Hollywood talent agency so important that, in VentureWire reporter Deborah Gage’s words, “it was hard to do deals without them being involved”.

  • http://www.paramountwest.com/ Perry West

    Well, one thing that I would say to this guy, you are sick! With all of those investments, I think you are really a genius. He invested on companies who will be earning more in the future. Great article. This made me really want to finish my studies to build my own company.

  • http://www.magnity.com David Shantz -Magnity

    Perhaps I'm just being cynical -but anyone whom I would consider a thought leader looks upon Twitter as a community that's feeding upon itself. I don't think anyone real is spending any significant time there. There are no real threads- just short, non-contextual messages, most often from someone with a vested interest in something to sell. Twitter's biggest equity seems to be that it's become one of the default properties that get mentioned by everyone. Its just a matter of time before the house of cards falls. I would check out Quora

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