What Are They Thinking?EditorialThere was much surprise this week when Marc Andreessen announced his firm’s $350m investment into Flow, Adam Neumann’s newest venture. The details of the business model have not been fully revealed but it seems to be another real-estate-based idea, except this time it focuses not on offices but on residential property.Neuman’s infamy, after taking WeWork from startup to multi-billion dollars in value, only to see it shrink again, is of course huge. Most reactions are questioning the sanity of any venture fund, never mind one with as good a reputation as A16Z, to back him again.In explaining the decision Andreessen says: “We understand how difficult it is to build something like this and we love seeing repeat-founders build on past successes by growing from l
Software is about to eat live sports. The signs have been coming for some time. Apple$Apple(AAPL)$ pioneered the trend by buying the rights to Friday night baseball and MLS soccer. It is rumored to be interested in Sunday Ticket for NFL streaming.Now Amazon$Amazon.com(AMZN)$ is strongly favored to buy the rights to one of the biggest football competitions in the world — the UEFA Champions League — in one of its biggest markets — the UK. This follows the deal announced in March, an 11-year deal, valued at $1bn (£824m) annually, for Amazon to broadcast live NFL football in the US.These deals highlight the next stage in the competition between broadcast, cable, and satellite networks on one side and streaming gia