Mark Zuckerberg is ''Quite Sure'' He Didn't Sign Away 84% of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has said he is "quite sure" he didn't sign away 84 percent of his company when it was first starting out.
Last week news emerged that a web designer by the name of Paul D. Cegli had filed a lawsuit against Facebook, claiming he owned a majority stake in the company. Cegli said he entered into a contract with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003, promising to design a website for the Facebook CEO. The contract stipulated that Cegli would design a site and pay Zuckerberg $1,000, and in return, he would receive a 50 percent stake in Facebook. The contract also states that Cegli would receive an additional 1 percent stake every day until thefacebook.com went live. All told, the suit alleges Cegli owns all but 16 percent of the social network.
A Facebook attorney made headlines yesterday when she said that Zuckerberg had done some contract work for Ceglia, but admitted she "wasn't sure" if Mark had signed the contract shown in court. Last night, Mark Zuckerberg told ABC's Diane Sawyer that he is quite sure he never signed the contract and says his lawyer's comment was probably taken out of context.
"If we said that we were unsure, that was likely taken out of context, because I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says they have any right to ownership over Facebook," PC Mag cites Zuckerberg as saying in the interview.
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Usually that statement "Quite sure" Follows after a night of drinking.
RIDICULOUS!
Only thing more boring than reading news about Zuckerberg is the fact that they are making a movie about him & the origins of Facebook.
Only thing more boring than reading news about Zuckerberg is the fact that they are making a movie about him & the origins of Facebook.
You think they will include Cegli in the movie and the "signing"?
Curse that fine print!!!
But in all seriousness, why did this guy wait this long to claim his stake in facebook? I could see that this guy did work for him and that the contract was real but modified once signed so this guy could seem legit about it. Who would ever initally sign away 50% stake to the initial programmer? Seriously...
He's either being sore about only getting $1,000 from a multi-million dollar site or he's really hurting for work. Of which case, having "Created FaceBook" on your resume would make one think he'd get a lot of work.
I think the author meant to say that "Ceglia had done some contract work for Zuckerberg." The way it's worded says that Zuckerberg worked for Ceglia and that would imply that Ceglia owes *HIM* some compensation.
stupid spam, make it go away!
The media is short-stroking this all over the place (which is par for the course). The fact is that this dufuss Ceglia is never going to get 84% of Facebook. He simply did not materially contribute to what Facebook is today. It has evolved from a simple online yearbook app that he may have helped develop to the biggest social network site on the planet. It involves millions of lines of code created by hundreds if not thousands of programmers of the course of the past half-decade. Zuckerberg doesn't even own the majority of Facebook. He owns something like 25% with the rest being owned by various other individuals and investment groups.
What will probably happen is that they will eventually settle out of course for an undisclosed amount (probably a 7-figure sum), with Ceglia agreeing to abrograte all rights to any further claims to Facebook ownership, and/or entitlement to earnings.
He's a zucker, what can you say?
If it is real, he might have been waiting all this time to let Facebook grow to the size it has without having to do any work so that when he would get 84% of it, he would be getting 84% of Facebook's $25b worth and not however much Facebook was worth a few years ago.
The other article I read said that Ceglia paid Zuckerberg $1000 to create thefacebook.com. Ceglia owns a car dealership or something and was also trying to reach out into social networking (investment opportunities I guess). The initial contract was that Ceglia would maintain 50% ownership, and Zuckerberg would lose 1% for every day the project was late. Basically, Ceglia was an initial investor into thefacebook, which Zuckerberg later transitioned the idea to plain-old facebook. That's how I understand the situation.
If this man initially paid Zucks $1000 for 50% of facebook, that's where it stands. If this guy wins, all of facebook's subsequent investors are going to have a nice lawsuit to file against Zuckerberg.
Face it, Zuckerberg's a tool. He probably thought he could get out of the deal by moving to a different domain name. The guy has shown over and over that he has no idea how to run a company.
Lol!
From accidental billionaires to accidental millionaires!
Hmmm... what is 84% of 25 billion dollars. I think he will still be ok if he loses, lol.
With any luck, the guy will gut his 84%, and make people ACTUALLY INTERACT. Seriously, your running a virtual farm, with virtual crap (the fertilizing thing) and have 1000s of Freinds you'll never meet helping. Last I checkined meeting people on-line is how children get raped.
Frald out.
shame thefacebook.com never went live, isn't it.
Give the guy his grand back and be done with it.
Last I checkined meeting people on-line is how children get raped.Frald out.
Last time I checked, it's idiotic comments and sweeping generalisations like that which cause all manner of shit and complications for the 99.9% of legitimate users of social networking sites a bad name.
Don't want your kids raped by an online pedo? Don't let them go online unattended and raise your kids properly.
Mark Zuckerberg isn't "Quite Sure About Anything" these days. I realize he is young, but you're a damn leader, CEO, and face for your company [pun not intended]. Start acting like an adult and don't give us these repeated childish replies when people ask you questions. Literally, for the past 3 months he's replied the exact same way with almost no change in his speech to dozens of different questions in interviews.
Diane Sawyer should have just said told him, "Man the fuck up Zuckerberg" and left without doing an interview and aired that.
what a stupid f*ck.
99.9% of legitimate users of social networking sites a bad name.Don't want your kids raped by an online pedo? Don't let them go online unattended and raise your kids properly.
How about don't let them go online at all? These kids spend hours and hours online, if you expect any parent to actually monitor their kid for hours and hours at a time then I want to know what you consider raising your kid properly? Properly to me would never allow them to have a facebook. I dont have one, dont need one. I socialize the old fashion way, IN PERSON!
It would be really really funny if they go to court and programmer wins. I dont use facebook so I dont care either way.
How about don't let them go online at all? These kids spend hours and hours online, if you expect any parent to actually monitor their kid for hours and hours at a time then I want to know what you consider raising your kid properly? Properly to me would never allow them to have a facebook. I dont have one, dont need one. I socialize the old fashion way, IN PERSON!
Thank you, and don't get me wrong, the internet is a wonderful resource, this site for example. But revolviong your life around Myspace, and Facebook is wrong. Not to mention they are little more than gossip forums playing to the practice of bullying. When a site causes homo/scuicide, you should re-evaluate things.
Oh, and LePhuronn, dose that 99.9% include the people whom stalk their ex? Or the people who spend hours serching for, and spreading rumors? Dose it include the army of 14 year old girls inciting premature sexuality, and eliteism? I didn't think so.
Only thing more boring than reading news about Zuckerberg is the fact that they are making a movie about him & the origins of Facebook.
What??? LOL.
What does "Quite Sure" mean as apposed to just plain "Sure"?
I so want to see the facebook movie now. I hope they have him in it, then make a sequel with these current events.
I believe people should spend less time online in general.
I say this as a web developer, so I'm not saying this lightly. The internet is a powerful tool that can really advance us as people and humanity in general, but people have replaced more meaningful and forfilling forms of living with cheap frills, that once taken away become a crutch to their general happiness. Having lots and lots of quick fixes to something is an unhealthy way to live in general. Having it in smaller and smaller pieces is also unhealthy for a human mind.
Want examples? Look at food, people who snack all the time, often and don't need to work for it often end up obese.
Relationships are another. How many people who can't hold together a partner for more than a few months and constantly sleep around rather than commiting actually end up happy in the long (or even short) run? From my experience, they're all miserable and great at acting otherwise!
It's not the same, but the concept is similar! We need more forfilling lives and not too much time getting quick fixes and watered down communication.
If they put that in the movie, maybe I'll watch it ...
LOL Seriously. This Cegli dude is a joke. He waits until facebook becomes a multi billionaire company to claim "his stake" What a scam. Maybe his story would be more believable had he actually went earlier instead of waited.
Screenshot, or it didn't happen.
He's a zucker, what can you say?
zing!
More importantly, Jane used the phrase "all but" correctly. I see lots of journalists use it incorrectly. The same with "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less". Go Jane!
I'm "quite sure" i'll never open a facebook account. it's enough that i was dumb enough to let myspace have some of my data.