Marc Andreessen becomes a big-time friend of Facebook

Marc Andreessen was only in his early 20s when he changed the world forever. Of course, he helped to create the Mosaic browser and was the cofounder of Netscape Communications (he even was on the front cover of Time).

No doubt, he learned some important lessons – especially during the dot-com bust. In fact, he has been able to deal with the adversity, having created such great companies as Opsware – which was sold to Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) recently for $1.6 billion.

Well, now Andreessen is going to help another tech wunderkind: Mark Zuckerberg, who is the mastermind of Facebook. That is, Andreessen will join the company's board.

While such maneuverings are often cosmetic, I think this move is more substantive. Talking to a variety of Silicon Valley VCs, there's much skepticism about Zuckerberg's capabilities. Besides, is social networking really going to be a platform that can be monetized effectively – and justify the rich valuations?

No doubt, Andreessen understands the pressures and the importance of making key strategic decisions. So all in all, this looks like a pretty savvy move for Facebook.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.