“Far from experiencing a bubble, Silicon Valley has been in the throes of a ‘technology depression,'” Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said at the New York Times Dealbook conference on Wednesday,” Sarah McBride reports for Reuters. “To bolster his case, Andreessen said publicly held technology stocks were trading at the biggest discount to industrials since the 1970s. For example, he said, Google Inc’s stock price reflected valuations of zero for many of the company’s key businesses, such as video service YouTube and browser Chrome.”
“Part of the problem, he said, is a belief in some circles that old-line technology companies are ‘doomed,'” McBride reports. “But Andreessen pointed to Apple Inc as a company that many people had written off but which managed to pull off a stunning turnaround in the early 2000s.”
McBride reports, “In response to a question from the audience, Andreessen said the New York Times Co should shut down the print edition of its namesake newspaper ‘as soon as possible.’ While the newspaper’s potential audience is growing quickly due to factors such as the global rise of the middle class, he said the company should focus entirely on its digital offering. ‘It’s not that you can’t make money in print newspapers,’ he said. ‘It’s not that there aren’t people who love them.’ But successfully dealing with transformative technology requires going “‘on 100 percent offense,”‘ he said.”
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