Facebook won final approval to acquire ConnectU, a social networking rival whose founders had accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea, despite an appeal against their agreed
out-of-court settlement earlier this year. ConnectU claimed that Facebook misrepresented its value during the settlement talks.
The controversy was all about Microsoft's stake in the social
networking giant, as ConnectU's owners were to be given an undisclosed amount of money and Facebook stock as part of the settlement. Following Microsoft's purchase of a one percent stake in October
2007, Facebook was given a valuation of $15 billion, but the company claims that that value shouldn't be used to rate its worth because the deal was specific to Microsoft. Instead, Facebook said its
real value was $3-4bn. In exchange for the money and Facebook stock, ConnectU's owners, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (who happen to be Olympic rowers), agreed to hand over to Facebook all the stock
they held in ConnectU.
Read the whole story at BBC News »