Napster founder hobnobs with Andreessen at auction
By Bloomberg News
May 22, 2000, 11:40 a.m. PT
Warren Buffett, who has said Internet stock values show that "the ability to monetize shareholder ignorance has probably never been exceeded," found himself the other night
partying in the center of dot-com mania.
The 69-year-old mogul joined a charity auction at the Silicon Valley home of investor Ron Conway Friday night, along with about 300 fellow billionaires and would-be billionaires--some young enough to be his grandchildren.
One guest, too young to drink and sitting out the bidding, had plenty to celebrate.
Shawn Fanning, 19-year-old founder of Napster, got word earlier in the day that his San Mateo, Calif.-based company, creator of the popular software that lets people find and share music files over the Internet, would get a $15 million investment from venture capital firm Hummer Winblad.
"His life's going to change," said fellow Napster executive Chris Phenner, corralling Fanning and two other company executives for a chat with Marc Andreessen, the 29-year-old co-founder of Netscape Communications. Andreessen has "been through it all," in Phenner's words.
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