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As a side note, a little known fact is that when I was at Friendster, I found a small company out of Harvard that we came very close to acquiring, a startup no one had heard of that time, a company named Thefacebook. I've been an admirer of Zuck and the facebook team for a long time now.


So says ex-Friendster executive and Bebo founder Jim Scheinman
in a self-aggrandizing interview with VentureBeat. Scheinman also takes credit for developing the "engagement marketing concept" — we think he means Facebook's new advertising platform. So, Jim, fess up. Why did the deal fall apart? How much did Mark Zuckerberg want? We suspect Scheinman won't tell us, so if you know anything more about Friendster's botched chance to stay relevant, fill us in.