Andreessen to invest in TPM
Was this announced on TPM over the weekend? I saw the job announcements, of course, but The Daily Dish article on Froomkin's new job led to this article in TechCrunch about where the money was coming from:
More news about Marc Andreessen making venture investments this morning after the launch of his new $300 million fund, Andreessen Horowitz: he is leading [not lending] a round of financing for TPM Media, better known as the TalkingPointsMemo blog.
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Since this may be an obscure reference to some, Marc Andreessen is one of the designers of the very first graphical WWW browser (called Mosaic), and went on to found Netscape -- of whose Netscape Navigator you may have heard of.
July 7, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the fill in Karl
July 7, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lending money isn't the same as "investing in" - but it certainly tells us TPM is considered a "venture" worth lending to.
July 7, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
PS. good work, Donal! :)
July 7, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lending money is far more preferable. It means you retain total control rather than answering to a board of directors.
Or to put it in TPM terms: Josh hasn't gone "corporate".
Most small businesses would far prefer to be lent millions of dollars from a bank then have to chase VCs. When you pay off the loan, your lender goes away.
Josh Marshall (or whomever advised him) was rather savvy here. For a site left-of-center, it sure showed a lot of business knowledge and acumen.
Before you spin the "lending" as worse than "investing" as your comment implies, please educate yourself to business practices.
July 7, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thera, did you read leading as lending? Where is the lending vs investing question coming from? Both linked articles say Andreessen is investing.
July 7, 2009 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah well. I assumed Thera knew something I didn't. Your comment, Donal certainly makes more sense as business SOP.
July 7, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Um,
Somehow I don't think she did.
=D
July 7, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good news on both fronts, donal: TPM and Froomkin. I hadn't seen either one. Thanks for the headsup.
July 7, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was hoping some of those new TPM funds would be used to lure Froomkie to TPM, but alas it was not to be. On a good note, it will be good to see Frommkin bring some accountability journalism over to HuffPo which has gotten so sensationalistic and tabloidy I rarely check it out. I will be reading Froomkin regularly over at HuffPo right after I check out the latest Michelle Obama fashion slide show. :)
July 7, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that I think about it, it was Froomkin's White House Watch column back in 2004 that first introduced me to Josh Marshall & TPM. It would have been so perfect to have him here but I'll just have to add HuffPo to my daily reads bookmark.
July 7, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
HuffPo is like a political blog jointly run by TMZ, The Smoking Gun and Treehugger.
July 7, 2009 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they can get some Smoking Gun videos on there. I'm thinking something like "World's Dumbest Politicians, Volumes 1-20". They could have Jo Koy and Danny Bonaduce do the commentary.
July 8, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Andreessen also started the New York Times Death Watch.
July 7, 2009 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is exciting! Thanks, Donal.
July 7, 2009 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
'tis
July 7, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spread the love around Josh. I need a new office chair.
July 7, 2009 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't Josh's wife an incredibly sophisticated and high-powered securities lawyer? Judging from what they are doing with TPM and also with their beautiful family, they appear to be a match made in heaven.
Watch out TPM! Now that you've hit the big time, the Politico will be taking out hit jobs on you like they just did to the Washington Post. Oh wait...they've already done that. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21965.html
July 8, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink