Andreessen Horowitz appears to be one of the winners in the $2.4 billion acquisition of online retailer Zulily by the owner of home shopping network QVC that was announced on Monday.
The Menlo Park-based venture firm was the Seattle company's (Nasdaq: ZU) biggest shareholder as recently as April, with about 13 percent of its stock at that time. But its hard to know exactly how well it did as Term Sheet reported on Monday that A16Z had "quietly distributed" most of its shares within the past few months.
Zulily's example may not be terribly comforting, either, to other so-called unicorns — as venture-backed companies that hit $1 billion in valuation are known. It is one of a growing group of VC-backed companies that have strong IPOs and first-day stock gains, only to lose value after their quarterly financials are subjected to Wall Street scrutiny....
VC backers of ecommerce company Zulily and its company founders hit a home run as it gets purchased by QVC.