Marc Andreessen, co-founder and executive vice president of products at Netscape, is reportedly due to be appointed America Online's first chief technology officer. The news comes two months after AOL announced its intention to acquire Netscape.
As AOL CTO, Andreessen will report directly to company Chairman and CEO Steve Case, according to a report in today's Wall Street Journal. His role will be to determine potential future technologies for AOL, but won't involve managing the online company's technical operations or heading up the development of Netscape's software, the report added.
Andreessen's new high-profile job is seen as a way to keep existing Netscape staff onboard when the company becomes part of AOL. This is supposed to happen sometime this spring once the deal closes subject to regulatory approval, the report said.
AOL first announced its intentions to acquire Netscape in a stock-for-stock deal in November, which was originally valued at about $4.2 billion. Since that time, AOL stock has increased substantially, consequently changing the deal's valuation.
Last month, Andreessen endeavored to ease Netscape employees about becoming part of AOL, explaining that they would still retain some of the start-up company's culture. For instance, staff will still be able to take sabbaticals, he said.
In fact, Andreessen himself went on sabbatical from Nov. 9, 1998 to Jan. 4. As a result he wasn't around very much publicly during the announcement and the reaction to the AOL-Netscape deal.
Andreessen's new role would involve him commuting between Netscape's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. and those of AOL in Dulles, Va., the report said.
Many meetings were held between Andreessen and Case and other AOL executives before his new role was agreed upon, the report added.
RELATED LINKS
Network World, 11/30/98
AOL's Case pledges support for Mozilla.org
Network World, 12/2/99
AOL sheds consumer rep with VPNs
Network World, 1/19/98
