Andreessen Horowitz

Within the past year, Fab.com has hit a lot of milestones: 1.8 million products sold; 4.75 million members and now three acquisitions. The acquisition announced today on the company’s blog is Llustre, a copycat of Fab.com in the U.K. that's identically focused on selling home decor, apparel and other items from independent designers. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Fab.com previously purchased Casacanda in Germany and Fashionstake in the U.S. to launch its clothing vertical.

Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, is leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors. Many people may still be unfamiliar with the Rakuten brand, but it's an international e-commerce powerhouse that sees itself competing with Amazon.com. Rakuten owns Buy.com, Rakuten Ichiba in Japan, PriceMinister in France, Play.com in the U.K., Tradoria in Germany, Rakuten Brazil, Rakuten Taiwan, TARAD in Thailand and Rakuten Belanja Online in Indonesia, as well as e-book publisher Kobo.

Microsoft Corp. and Skype Global S.a r.l have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype. eBay had acquired Skypein 2005 under Meg Whitman approximately $2.6 billion. It then sold 70% of Skype for $1.9 billion in 2009 to an investor group led by Silver Lake that included Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board in a deal valuing the business at $2.75