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Facebook director Marc Andreessen sells half his stake

Facebook board member and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has sold almost half his personal holdings in the giant social network.

From Oct. 30 until Nov. 6, Andreessen sold more than 900,000 shares of Facebook FB for more than $90 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The sales, which are part of a prearranged trading plan, come as Facebook shares have soared over $100, giving the company a market value of more than $300 billion.

A spokeswoman for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment. A Facebook spokeswoman also declined to comment.

Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research, says it’s hard to interpret the sales without “any sort of commentary from Marc Andreessen himself.”[related-posts]

“The fact is, Facebook stock is up over 40% in the past year and up even more significantly since the (initial public offering), so Andreessen has had a great return on his investment here already,” Dawson said.

Facebook shares were up 0.9% on Tuesday to $107.43.

Andreessen still has a significant stake in Facebook, including voting shares, Dawson noted. Andreessen owns nearly 758,000 Class A Facebook shares. He also also owns nearly 380,000 Class B shares, which have special voting rights.

Andreessen has become one of the more vocal investors in Silicon Valley, frequently taking to Twitter to air his opinions and defend the tech industry.

“I don’t see this as any sort of abandonment of Facebook,” Dawson said. “But it is somewhat unexpected to see a guy who’s not afraid to be vocal be so quiet about why he’s selling these shares. I expect we might well see some sort of commentary from Andreessen on why he sold these shares before long.”

[USA TODAY]

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