Who Really Owns Facebook?
April 14th, 2011 | by Jen |Facebook’s tangled founding story is about to get more complicated, thanks to a man named Paul Ceglia.
Anyone who has seen The Social Network knows about Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss twins. Facebook co-founder Saverin was forced out, sued Facebook and settled for a 5% stake of the company. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss contracted Zuckerberg to build a Harvard-based social network for them, but when Mark Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook.com” instead, the twins sued. That case was also settled, though the twins have been trying hard to rescind it in court.
But there’s more to Facebook’s legacy of lawsuits than the movie mentioned. Last year, Ceglia claimed he and Zuckerberg signed a contract giving Ceglia 50% of Facebook. Most legal experts dismissed Ceglia’s lawsuit as outlandish, but it has resurfaced this week with evidence that promises to make this a messy affair.
So what exactly happened at Harvard in 2003 and 2004? Why have so many people claimed an ownership stake in Facebook? Who is Paul Ceglia, and does he actually have a case?
Facebook is seeking to dismiss this case, but the emails — fraudulent or otherwise — may be compelling enough for the case to move into discovery. It’s at this point that Facebook will be able to look at the evidence, including Ceglia’s emails and hard drives. If they can show that there was any tampering with the evidence, the case will be thrown out. But if not, the company may be forced to dish out money for yet another settlement, just to make Ceglia go away. DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest law firms, has agreed to take on the case — which is a sign that this dispute could be stuck in the courts for a long time.