Facebook tycoon settles legal challenge with $65m

A law firm is claiming Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc paid $65 million (Dh239 million) to settle a suit accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the concept for his social network.

The law firm that represented ConnectU, a smaller social network, included the settlement amount Facebook purportedly paid ConnectU’s founders in a newsletter.

The settlement was supposed to be confidential. Attorney Peter Calamari of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges told the Los Angeles Times the information was included by public relations employees and didn’t get caught before it was released. He says the firm had a policy not to discuss the case.

The news was first broken by The Recorder, a legal publication.

An after-hours call to Facebook was not immediately returned.