Venture Capitalist: Beware of Activist Holders
Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, whose firm has invested in era-defining technology companies like Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Groupon Inc., has words of caution for company founders: Beware activist shareholders.
Activists have spurred change numerous times, as seen by the recent exit of Yahoo Inc.’s chief executive and the pending breakups of McGraw-Hill Cos. and other big businesses. But some of those investors “have taken a good thing too far,” says Mr. Horowitz, a general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing venture-capital firms.
