Facebook's Lawyers Are 'Unsure' Whether CEO Signed Away the Company
The random designer trying to claim 84 percent of Facebook might have CEO Mark Zuckerberg's signature on a contract giving him the ownership stake. Facebook's courtroom admissions are making Paul Ceglia's claim sound a lot less insane.
The Western New York man still has to explain why Zuckerberg would effectively sign away his social network months before he is said to have invented it in his Harvard dorm room. But his lawyers did get Facebook counsel Lisa Simpson to admit: 1) that Zuckerberg had a contract of some sort with the Web designer; and 2) that Facebook is "unsure" of whether its CEO signed the specific contract that hands over much of his Facebook equity.
Both sides accept that Zuckerberg agreed to do some Web development for another project Ceglia was working on. What's up for dispute is if the money was also intended as an investment in Facebook. Facebook is trying to say it's too late to sue over the contract because the statute of limitations has expired. Unless the company can cobble together a better picture of what agreements its founder did or did not enter into, that's probably the best approach.
