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Facebook Wins Back Their Identity -- and Their Independence

By Garrett Godwin

Facebook have two reasons to celebrate.

Not only has the social networking site just recently celebrated their four-year anniversary, but their long court battle with ConnectU has come to an end last Wednesday.

The reason behind this lawsuit is that twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea while they were all attending Harvard University, claiming that he used the source code he was hired to develop for ConnectU.

However, Judge James Ware sticks by on a settlement from February between both companies. Several factors behind his decision was that following the $15 billion valuation, "Facebook's board of directors determined a value of the company's shares which was different than the valuation disclosed in the press release" presenting the Microsoft investment.

What was once and still is for college students, Facebook has increased its membership to even teens and adults of all ages, as its membership continues to go up at almost 40 million members. ConnectU, on the other hand, is said to have 15,000 members and available at 200 schools.

After the verdict, Facebook issued a statement:

"We are happy that Judge Ware enforced the agreement settling our dispute with the ConnectU founders. ... The ConnectU founders understood the deal they made, and we are gratified that the court rejected their false allegations of fraud. ... We were disappointed that we had to litigate the settlement, as we believed we were caught in the middle of a fee dispute between ConnectU's founders and its former counsel.

Nevertheless, we can now consider this chapter closed and wish the Winklevoss brothers the best of luck in their future endeavors."

Source: New York Times

Garrett Godwin writes for NewsBlaze from Michigan. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.