May 22, 2008 07:00 AM
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The author of Bringing Down The House has signed a million-dollar-plus book deal for his memoir about Mark Zuckerberg and the other Facebook founders, according to a tip to Gawker. In the proposal, author Ben Mezrich claims that Zuckerberg and his friend Eduardo Saverin started Facebook to get into a secret society and, of course, to get laid. The book may not be the most rigorously factual account, as Mezrich's Bringing Down The House (the basis for the Kevin Spacey film 21) was debunked by the Boston Globe as "not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word." Also, our tipster claims Mezrich's only source was Saverin, whom Zuckerberg is now suing. Here are the juiciest (and previously unreported) details from the proposal.
1. Mark and Eduardo made Facebook to get into a private Harvard club.
2. Before Facebook, they made a program called "FaceSmash."
(While this has been reported before, the story didn't mention Eduardo or the all-girl nature of the program.)
3. In high school, Mark got on an FBI list for accidentally hacking into a government site.
4. Mark and Eduardo lived a wild life, "dined with royalty" and "ate koala on the yacht of the CEO of Sun Microsystems."
5. Facebook was supposed to IPO this fall.
(Facebook has denied it will IPO this year, and to go public this fall they would have had to register by now.)
There are also some dubious claims:
Many facts seem off. While Sun co-founder Bill Joy has a famous eco-friendly yacht, any yacht owned by former CEO Scott McNealy or current CEO Jonathan Schwartz hasn't been mentioned in the news. Ten million users in two months is ludicrous; the site didn't spread virally from zero to nationwide but was launched by Zuckerberg for Harvard only, then to Ivy League schools, then to select colleges and eventually to all schools, companies, and finally the public.
Saverin has obviously told the story in a self-serving light, and Mezrich has indulged him because it makes a good narrative. Meanwhile Zuckerberg has sued Saverin, claiming "Saverin tried to hijack the company by freezing its bank account when Facebook desperately needed cash in its formative months," according to the magazine 02138. Saverin has counter-sued for a return on his initial investment. Because those billion-dollar figures Mezrich quotes are just predictions until the company actually sells.
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