Marc Andreessen Joining Facebook’s Board

Techcrunch is reporting that Marc Andreessen will be joining Facebook’s board with Jim Breyer, Peter Thiel and the majority seat holder, Mark Zuckerberg. It has been rumored that Andreessen would be joining the board but now the news appears to be official.

Marc Andreessen is currently the Chairman of Ning, a competing social network platform. This new position is important because it will tip the balance of the Facebook board, adding one more person and removing Zuckerberg’s majority seat holder position. It is also an interesting position for Andreessen given that he is currently running a competing service offering.

As Mike Arrington points out though, “Andreessen is known to be a mentor to Zuckerberg, who calls on him often for personal advice.” While the news theoretically puts Zuckerberg in a minority position, Andreessen would most likely tend to side with Mark on most issues. Then again, this news may suggest that Zuckerberg realizes it is becoming time for him to reduce some of the control he has and let the company have more seasoned management.