The Ghost Of Zuckerberg's Past May Haunt Facebook IPO

connectufacebook.jpgA long-standing dispute over the origin of Facebook looks set to haunt the growingly popular social networking service as it heads towards an IPO.

A lawsuit due to come before the US Federal Court later this month alleges that Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the original code for Facebook

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accuse Zuckerberg of stealing the source code, design, and business plan for Facebook in 2003 when he worked in the Harvard dorms as a programmer for their own tertiary education focused social-networking site HarvardConnect.com, now known as ConnectU.

It’s not unusual to see companies being sued as they are nearing an IPO, however this lawsuit is 3 years old. This isn’t a case of plaintiffs looking for a quick buck as billion dollar valuations are discussed; this article from The Stanford Daily details the case against “thefacebook.com” in 2004, which at the time only had 200,000 members and a lot less 0’s on the end of any theoretical company valuation.

The plaintiffs have demanded that Facebook be shut down and that full control of the site and its profits be turned over to them.

(via Venture Beat)