Judge forces Facebook court case into settlement

ConnectU calamity finally over?

27 June 2008 12:33 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

A Californian judge has ruled that the settlement reached via mediation back in February in the ongoing ConnectU versus Facebook lawsuit was legally binding and should stand.

This should see the embarrassing four-year court case finally over, something which will no doubt be a big relief for 24-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The undisclosed settlement, said to be made up of cash and Facebook shares was initially accepted, then rejected by the ConnectU party on the basis that the amount was wrong due to Facebook's stock market valuation.

Zuckerberg had been facing the legal action over claims he stole the idea behind Facebook's billion dollar success story.

The action from ConnectU, brought by three former Harvard classmates of Zuckerberg claimed he stole their idea, business plan and coding while he worked on their social networking site.