Andreesen No Longer AOL CTO

j_hylton writes "Reuters reports that Marc Andreessen is stepping dow as CTO of AOL. See the report at The Washington Post (and surely elsewhere). Sun's chief strategist will replace him, which is another sign of the growing cooperation between the two companies." The story says, "Andreessen will shift to become a part-time strategic advisor focused on boosting the Dulles, Va.-based company's investment activities."

AOL might have cut this deal at merger time

I have worked on the fringes of Corporate America for a long time, and this could have been the deal from the outset. AOL made this investment which hinged on everyone at Netscape not bailing out at once. They wanted to be in control and yet not be vilified for cutting the heart out of Netscape.

So, what they did was negotiated a deal where Barksdale would go almost immediately but stay on the Board of Directors, and Andreesen would stay for indefinitely in a fairly nebulous but senior role.

Now, sufficient time has passed where this is no longer on the public's RADAR screen. Sure, some will be interested, but most people won't see this as a big deal. After all, to the typical consumer, not much has changed. http://home.netscape.com/ [netscape.com] is still there.

With respect to us (slashdot fans), many of us hadn't liked Netscape for a while anyway. We always suspected that Mozilla didn't have as much support as we would have liked. But, AOL hasn't actually killed it either.

I hope it doesn't make people mad to hear this (or to hear it again), but the AOL-Sun-Netscape deal wasn't about the browser anyway. Everyone knows that Micros~1 killed that market a while ago.

This was always about the servers -- not the SuiteSpot which are Netscape's basic server products. This is about the Xpert server series: PublishingXpert, CommerceXpert, etc. These are the Web-based workflow automation products that Netscape developed in a joint-venture with General Electric's EDI business. These are pound-for-pound the most valuable things that Netscape ever developed, from a commercial perspective.

So, if I am right in this analysis, I think that AOL, Sun, and the Netscape shareholders are getting what they wanted out of this deal. We shall see if it truly works to the competitive advantage of them all.

News flash...

AOL Figurehead Moved to Lobby

By Paige Turner
AP Technology Writer
Friday, September 10, 1999; 2:20 p.m. EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. - America Online Inc. announced a shakeup today in its management ranks, announcing its intention to move figurehead Marc Andreessen, its visionary technology totem, into a glass case in the lobby.

AOL said in a statement from its Dulles, Va., headquarters that Andreessen, who has been founding Netscape professionally since 1994, would be more comfortable in his new location.

"Marc has expressed dissatisfaction with his ceremonial perch over the entrance to our boardroom," said AOL chief executive Steve Case. "We expect with this move we will be able to better serve Marc's career needs, such food, defecation, and petting."

AOL executives insist things have not changed substantially and that morale remains high.

"Marc is much happier in his new felt-lined glass enclosure," stated one handler. He is also on more prominent display here on the lobby, so that he can continue to inspire us all. Regrettably, the construction of Marc's cage renders him unable to make statements of a public nature."

Andreeson was not immediately available for comment. However, he was observed to write with blood on the interior of his cage the words, "Steve Case agrees with me that technology should be free. As a first step, I have recommended eliminating AOL's monthly ISP fees on a trial basis." Handlers covered Andreeson's box with a blanket soon afterwards.

Netscape, best known for its logo, is a leading provider of software and services for online businesses and the operator of NetCenter, a popular entry point to the World Wide Web. AOL is the largest Internet access provider and online service.

-konstant

"marca loves gotos"

I came across the most wonderful comment once in the source code for either Mosaic or Lynx. Slightly paraphrased:

"I put this goto here to make marca happy. marc loves gotos."

It just made my day. Sadly, I haven't been able to find it again since then.

Re:"marca loves gotos"

This is actually a comment in Netscape's server-push animation sample code. You can view it here. [netscape.com] For the impatient, here is the relevant section:


if(x == LASTCHAR) goto thats_it;
else ++x;
}

/* This goto is Marc's fault. Marc digs goto. */

thats_it:
exit (0);