Andre Yoskowitz
24 Jul 2010 0:34
Late last month, a man sued Facebook claiming he owns 84 percent of the social networking giant.
Paul Ceglia says he entered into a contract with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, for a 50 percent share, doing so for $1000 USD. In addition, Ceglia says the deal granted him 1 percent extra of the company for every day until the Web site was completed after January 2004.
The site took 34 days to complete.
Reads the signed contract: In return for the $1000 payment, Ceglia "would own a 50 percent interest in the software, programming language and business interests derived from the expansion of the [Facebook] service to a larger audience."
Facebook has come forward today with a strong denial of businessman Ceglia's claim to 84 percent of the social networking giant, going as far as to call the alleged contract in question a "forgery."
In his interview with "ABC World News" this week, Zuckerberg said: "I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says that they have any right to ownership over Facebook."
The company backed up its CEO saying: "Mark has made it clear that Ceglia's claims are absurd and we strongly suspect the contract is forged. However, we have not seen the original (no one has, including the court). Thus, we're focusing on the things that are not open to interpretation and are indisputable--Mark could not have given interest in a company that didn't exist or an idea he had not thought of yet and, even if he could, the statute of limitations has expired."