It was a different era then. Things are a lot tighter now.
Loudcloud was a terrific concept in its day. It could have become what AWS has become. But it was growing because money was just getting poured into dotcom startups. When the money dried up, they were stuck with all this hardware and staff they had needed. It's a credit to Horowitz that he saved even the sliver he did.
That's the problem with companies that raise gobs of money -- zero discipline in spending.