Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 04:55, 9 August 2010

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2009
Born	Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (1984-05-14) May 14, 1984 (age 40) White Plains, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard College (dropped out)
Occupation(s)	Co-founder, CEO & President of Facebook

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American entrepreneur best known for co-founding the popular social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. As of March 2010, he is the youngest billionaire in the world, with a net worth of US$4 billion in 2010 due to his 24% share of Facebook.

Personal life

Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York and raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Zuckerberg was raised with a Jewish background, but he considers himself an atheist. He started programming when he was in middle school. Early on, Zuckerberg enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. Before attending Phillips Exeter Academy, he went to school at Ardsley High School. At high school, he excelled in classics.

He transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy where he immersed himself in Latin. He also built a program to help the workers in his father's office communicate; he built a version of the game Risk, and under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player named the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he decided to attend Harvard College instead, which he attended in September 2002, and where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity. In college, he was known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Iliad.

A movie based on Zuckerberg and the founding years of Facebook, called The Social Network, will be released on October 1, 2010, and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. After Zuckerberg was told about the film, he responded, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive." Also, after the film's script was leaked on the Internet and it was apparent that the film would not put Zuckerberg in a positive light, he stated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy".

Facebook

Founding

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004. The idea for Facebook came from his days at Phillips Exeter Academy which, like most colleges and prep schools, had a long-standing tradition of publishing an annual student directory with headshot photos of all students, faculty and staff known as the "Facebook." Once at college, Zuckerberg's Facebook started off as just a "Harvard thing," until Zuckerberg then decided to spread Facebook to other schools and enlisted the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz. They first spread it to Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Brown and Yale, and then to other schools with social contacts with Harvard.

Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. They leased a small house which served as their first office. Over the summer, Zuckerberg met Peter Thiel who invested in the company. They got their first office during the summer of 2004. According to Zuckerberg, the group planned to return to Harvard in the fall but eventually decided to remain in California. To date, he has not returned as a student to college.

Wirehog

A month after Facebook launched in February 2004, another campus-only service, created by Wayne Chang, launched. It was called i2hub. The service focused on peer-to-peer file sharing. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook were gaining the attention of the press and both growing rapidly in users and publicity. In August of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D'Angelo, and Sean Parker launched a competing peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog. It was a precursor to Facebook Platform applications. Traction was low compared to i2hub, and Facebook ultimately shut it down the following summer.

Platform and Beacon

On May 24, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a Facebook Platform, a development platform for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. This announcement sparked a great deal of interest in the developer community. Within weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. Today, there are more than 800,000 developers around the world building applications for Facebook Platform. On July 23, 2008, Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a version of Facebook Platform for users.

On November 6, 2007, Zuckerberg announced a new social advertising system at an event in Los Angeles. A part of the new program, called Beacon, enabled people to share information with their Facebook friends based on their browsing activities on other sites. An eBay seller, for instance, could let friends know automatically what they have for sale via the Facebook news feed as they list items. The program came under heavy privacy concerns from both privacy groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond to the concerns quickly, and on December 5, 2007, Zuckerberg ultimately wrote a blog post on Facebook taking responsibility for issues with Beacon and offering an easier way for users to opt out of the service.

ConnectU lawsuits

Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of fraudulently letting them believe he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com (later called ConnectU). They filed a lawsuit in 2004 but was dismissed without prejudice on March 28, 2007. It was refiled soon thereafter in U.S. District Court in Boston, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 25, 2007. At the hearing the judge told ConnectU parts of their complaint were not sufficiently pled and gave them the ability to refile an amended complaint. Facebook countersued in regards to Social Butterfly, a project put out by The Winklevoss Chang Group, an alleged partnership between ConnectU and i2hub. It named among the defendants ConnectU, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Divya Narendra, and Wayne Chang, founder of i2hub. The parties reached a confidential settlement agreement in February, 2008. On June 25, 2008, the cases settled and Facebook agreed to pay a settlement of over 1.2 million common shares and $20 million in cash. In May, 2010, it was reported that the ConnectU founders were accusing Mark Zuckerberg of securities fraud for misrepresenting the value of the shares. ConnectU founders were under the impression they were worth $45 million. However, the valuation was based on a $15 billion valuation and preferred shares. ConnectU founders only received common shares and an internal valuation at the time valued Facebook at $3.4 billion. The effect is that the shares given to the ConnectU founders as part of the settlement would be worth 75% less than what they were presented as. The case is ongoing with ConnectU founders trying to get the settlement undone.

In November 2007, confidential court documents were posted on the website of Harvard alumni magazine 02138. They included Zuckerberg's social security number, his parents' home address and his girlfriend's address. Facebook filed to get the documents taken down, but the judge ruled in favor of 02138.

Arrest warrant from Pakistan

The Deputy Attorney General of the Islamic republic of Pakistan has asked the country's police to issue an arrest warrant through Interpol to have Mark Zuckerberg arrested in 2010 for Blasphemy after a "Draw Muhammad" contest on Facebook was started, which led to Pakistan blocking Facebook nationwide. The demands for arrest extended to Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the co-founders of Facebook. The Deputy Attorney General said that he's waiting for the police to contact Interpol about making arrangements for the arrest of Facebook's owners. The Pakistan government has asked its representative to raise the issue with the United Nations General Assembly. No formal charges have been filed against Zuckerberg.

Paul Ceglia

On June 30, 2010, Paul Ceglia, the owner of a wood pellet fuel company in Allegany County, New York, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, claiming 84% ownership of Facebook as well as additional monetary damages. According to Ceglia, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract on April 28, 2003, that for an initial fee of $1,000, entitles Ceglia to 50% of the website's revenue, as well as additional 1% interest per each day after January 1, 2004, until website completion. Zuckerberg developed other projects at the time, among which was Facemash, the predecessor of Facebook, but did not register the domain name thefacebook.com until January 1, 2004. Facebook management is dismissing the lawsuit as "completely frivolous", while Ceglia has approached Lisa Simpson, Zuckerberg's lawyer, to seek an out-of-court settlement; the latter offer was declined. In an interview to ABC World News, Zuckerberg stated he is confident of never signing such an agreement. At the time, Zuckerberg worked for Ceglia as a code developer on a project named "StreetFax". Judge Thomas Brown of Allegany Court has issued a restraining order on all financial transfers concerning ownership of Facebook until further notice; in response, Facebook management has requested for the order to be canceled and for the case to be moved to the Supreme Court. According to Facebook, the order would not affect their business but lacks legal basis.

References

1. Forbes. Retrieved April 2010.
2. Vara, Vauhini (2007-11-28). "Too Much Information? - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
3. Forbes billionaire topic page on Mark Zuckerberg Forbes. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
4. David Kirkpatrick. The Facebook Effect. p. 322.
5. Yaniv Halili (2010-03-19). "Changing His Status". 7 Days, Yedioth Ahronoth, issue #2408. pp. 94–100. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
6. Vara, Vauhini (2007-11-28). "Too Much Information? - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
7. ^ McDevitt, Caitlin (2010-03-05). "What We Learned About Mark Zuckerberg This Week". The Big Money. Retrieved 2010-03-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
10. "Hacker. Dropout. CEO".
11. Fried, Ina (June 2, 2010). "Zuckerberg in the hot seat at D8". CNET. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
12. Harlow, John (2010-05-16). "Movie depicts seamy life of Facebook boss". The Times Online. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
13. Chris Holt (10 March 2004). "Thefacebook.com's darker side". The Stanford Daily.
14. "Online network created by Harvard students flourishes". Tufts Daily. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
15. "Thefacebook.com opens to Duke students — News". Duke Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
16. Martey Dodoo (2004-08-16). "Wirehog?". Martey Dodoo.
17. Alan J. Tabak (2004-08-13). "Zuckerberg Programs New Website". Harvard Crimson.
18. "The Facebook Blog | Facebook". Blog.facebook.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
19. Nicholas Carlson. "In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg Broke Into A Facebook User's Private Email Account". Silicon Alley Insider. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
20. "Facebook Tries to Fend Off Copyright-Infringement Claim". PC World. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
21. California Northern District Court (2007-03-09). "The Facebook, Inc. v. Connectu, LLC et al". Justia.
22. Brad Stone (2008-06-28). "Judge Ends Facebook's Feud With ConnectU". New York Times.
23. Logged in as click here to log out (February 12, 2009). "Facebook paid up to $65m to founder Mark Zuckerberg's ex-classmates | Technology | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
24. Owen Thomas (2010-05-19). "Facebook CEO's latest woe: accusations of securities fraud". VentureBeat.
25. McCarthy, Caroline (2007-11-30). "article about 02138". News.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
26. West, Jackson. "Facebook CEO Named in Pakistan Criminal Investigation". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
27. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/zuckerberg_faces_criminal_investigation_in_pakistan/
28. Oreskovic, Alexei (July 12, 2010). "Facebook fights New Yorker's claim of 84 percent stake". Reuters. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
29. Fowler, Geoffrey A. (July 13, 2010). "Man Claims Ownership of Facebook". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
30. Priyanka (July 22, 2010). "Zuckerberg 'quite sure' he didn't hand over 84% Facebook to Ceglia". The Money Times. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
31. Kawamoto, Dawn (July 13, 2010). "Facebook and Website Designer Paul Ceglia Brawl Over 84% Stake". DailyFinance.com. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
32. Chowdhry, Amit (July 13, 2010). "Paul Ceglia Files Lawsuit Against Facebook Claiming To Own 84% Of The Company". Pulse2. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
33. Bosker, Bianca (July 13, 2007). "Paul Ceglia Claims To Own 84% Stake In Facebook". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 22, 2010.

External links

• Facebook.com
• Facebook Profile
• Mark Zuckerberg on Twitter

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook

• American atheists
• American businesspeople
• American computer programmers
• American Internet personalities
• American Jews
• Businesspeople in information technology
• Child businesspeople
• Facebook employees
• Harvard University people
• Jewish atheists
• People from Westchester County, New York
• Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
• 1984 births
• Living people