One fumble after another;
no wonder they lost the war

ConnectU, which sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for stealing its code, is now a Facebook acquisition target, the BBC reports.

Before starting Facebook, Zuckerberg conducted programming work for the founders of ConnectU, known at the time as HarvardConnect.com. He launched Facebook as an Ivy League-only network in 2004, sparking a lawsuit from his former employers. Alleging Zuckerberg stole their code, they demanded that Facebook be shut down and its profits surrendered to them.

ConnectU's lawsuit was settled in 2008, but the company appealed, arguing Facebook misrepresented itself during settlement talks.

Facebook bamboozled ConnectU into believing its "real" valuation is about $3-4 billion (as opposed to its $15 billion on-paper valuation.) Based on that figure, it agreed to give ConnectU owners an undisclosed amount of money and stock. In exchange, ConnectU's principal shareholders agreed to surrender their ConnectU stock to Facebook.

The judge responded by demanding that ConnectU abide by the original settlement and transfer their stock to Facebook forthwith.