Three Harvard graduates are to gamble a $65m settlement they made with Facebook over who came up with the idea for the site, in an effort to get more money. The three accuse Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for what has become the world's biggest social network. Mr Zuckerberg, who also attended Harvard, has always denied the claims. But in 2008, after years of legal wrangling, Facebook agreed a multi-million dollar deal to put an end to the "rancorous litigation". Nearly three years later, the Winklevoss twins and Mr Narendra want the case heard again. ... "Facebook failed to disclose that at about the same time its board of directors had approved a valuation of $9 a share which was to be the basis of stock options for key employees. Facebook did not disclose this significant piece of information." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12155352
They split 65 million three ways just for having an idea. But no, that's not enough, they want even more. That's the problem with being rich & famous, the cockroaches crawl out of the woodwork, hook up with some lawyers, then come after you. People who never liked you and haven't seen you in 20 years suddenly were your best friends. Much better to be just rich. They should publish the names of the plaintffs so they can experience the joy of swarms of losers calling them up asking for money.
Ideas have no value. You can't patent an idea, only its implementation. Thats why Zuckerberger is rich and the others aren't. Ninna
That's funny. Now that I think about it, I seem to recall having an idea in the early days of the Internet to create a social network similar to Facebook. Hmmm, maybe I should go get me an attorney!
Well, this is from last May: "The ConnectU cofounders are arguing that Facebook executives and lawyers presented the cash-and-stock offerâs value as $65 million, relying on a valuation of $15 billion that Microsoft paid in 2007 when buying preferred shares in the company. The settlement, however, was to be paid in common shares, not preferred shares, which Facebook itself valued at roughly 75 percent less for the purposes of calculating taxes on stock-based compensation â cutting the settlementâs offer roughly in half." http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/19/facebook-connectu-securities-fraud/ Ideas are patented all the time. Zuckerberg is rich, because he stole the idea and beat them to go online first, by lying about his work supposedly done for them. Additionally, he screwed over his best friend and early backer, who also won against him and got his stocks back. Watch the movie for fuck's sake....
Oh please, he is no angel. He stole, lied, cheated quite enough to warrant this type of attention. Settling these suits is his best move.
I'm not saying he's an angel. Im saying that he's the one who implemented the idea successfuly. Nobody gives a damn who came up with the idea financially speaking. The person who can implement the idea gets the money. Simple. It might not be fair but life's not fair, is it? Ninna
You are not getting this. He was implementing someone else's idea WHILE he was supposed to work on that idea for that very same someone else, effectively putting them behind in time. Highly unethical and illegal, thus the lawsuit... If you don't get such a simple thing..... "On September 20, 2010, Facebook confirmed the authenticity of these leaked instant messages in a New Yorker article.One exchange between Zuckerberg and a friend reads: FRIEND: so have you decided what you are going to do about the websites? ZUCK: yea iâm going to fuck them ZUCK: probably in the year ZUCK: *ear
I agree, everybody has some great ideas at some point but thats the easy part. Building an actual business is where all the value is.
You gotta be kidding me. John Paulson made $20 billion in profits one year from a single idea, more than Zuckerberg's entire net worth. In trading and investing, implementation is a couple of mouse clicks, anyone can do it. Ideas are everything, because almost no one has great ideas that make shitloads of money.