As Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.—Columbia Pictures
Every age has its visionaries who leave, in the wake of their genius, a changed world--but rarely without a battle over exactly what happened and who was there at the moment of creation. "The Social Network" explores the moment at which Facebook was invented--through the warring perspectives of the super-smart young men who each claimed to be there at its inception. The movie moves from the halls of Harvard to the cubicles of Palo Alto to capture the heady early days of a culture-changing phenomenon in the making--and the way it both pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then split them apart. In the midst of the chaos are Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the brilliant Harvard student who conceived a Web site; Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), once Zuckerberg's close friend, who provided the seed money for the fledgling company; Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who brought Facebook to Silicon Valley's venture capitalists; and the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), the Harvard classmates who asserted that Zuckerberg stole their idea and then sued him for ownership of it. Each has his own narrative, his own version of the Facebook story in this multi-level portrait of 21st Century success--both the youthful fantasy of it and its finite realities as well.—Columbia Pictures
As told through flashbacks via deposition hearings for two concurrent lawsuits, the development and early days of the social networking website Facebook is presented. Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin - officially listed as the co-founders of the website - were once best friends. Based on an on-line blog about his ex-girlfriend and a site he developed allowing its users to rate the hotness factor of girls on campus, Zuckerberg, who exhibited a streak of arrogance, was asked by fellow Harvardites, wealthy twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, and their friend Divya Narendra, to enter into an agreement to develop a social networking website specifically for Harvard students, the attraction for people to visit it being its exclusivity solely to Harvard students. Zuckerberg agreed. Zuckerberg, with financing from his friend Saverin, decided instead to develop his own website without telling the "Winklevi" (as he calls the twins) and Narenda. Zuckerberg's assertion was that he never used a line of code provided by the three in his work. As "thefacebook" as it was then called began to blossom, the twins and Narenda had to figure out what to do to regain what they believed their intellectual property without having to sue, since that's not what gentlemanly Harvardites do. As the site was brought to more and more university campuses, Zuckerberg and Saverin began to have a difference of opinion: Saverin wanted to sell ad space to generate revenue (as he had been the website's sole financier and he had profit mentality based on being an economics major), while Zuckerberg, never one interested in money, didn't want to go that route as the ads would make the site lose its "cool" factor, which made it popular. The site attracted the attention of the founder of Napster, Sean Parker, whose own dot com life had its spectacular ups and spectacular downs. As Parker ingratiated himself into Facebook's life (much to Saverin's chagrin) and as Zuckerberg began increasingly to side with Parker, Saverin slowly began to be phased out of both Zuckerberg's personal and professional life.—Huggo
The story of the creators of Facebook and the subsequent legal battles that stretched out over several years. Told mostly in flashbacks while Mark Zuckerberg gives depositions in two lawsuits, the idea of a shareable social information site came to him one night after he hacked into his school's database and published the photos of all the women at the school. One of his roommates, Eduardo Saverin, provides the upfront financing and Zuckerberg deftly outmaneuvers two other students who had a similar idea. The relationship with Saverin deteriorates and he soon finds himself on the outside looking in. All in all, an unflattering picture of all those involved.—garykmcd
In October 2003, 19-year-old Harvard University sophomore Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is dumped by his girlfriend Erica Albright. As Erica thinks Mark is obsessed with exclusive clubs, which are not easy to get into. He also insults Erica by saying that if he gets into final clubs, she will get to go to parties and events where she would meet people, she will normally not get the chance to meet. Returning to his dorm, Zuckerberg writes an insulting post about Albright on his LiveJournal blog. He creates a campus website called Facemash by hacking into college databases to steal photos of female students, then allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness.
After traffic to the site crashes parts of Harvard's computer network, Zuckerberg is given six months of academic probation. However, Facemash's popularity attracts the attention of twins Cameron (Armie Hammer) and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and their business partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). The trio invites Zuckerberg to work on Harvard Connection, a social network exclusive to Harvard students and aimed at dating.
Zuckerberg approaches his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) with an idea for Thefacebook, a social networking website that would be exclusive to Ivy League students. Saverin provides $1,000 in seed funding, allowing Zuckerberg to build the website, which quickly becomes popular. Mark had stalled the Winklevosses for 6 weeks, received 36 emails and returned 16 and never expressed any doubts about the website or what they were trying to accomplish with Mark. In January (after 6 weeks) he had the meeting where Mark told the Winklesvosses that their website was not a good idea.
When they learn of Thefacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra are incensed, believing that Zuckerberg stole their idea while keeping them in the dark by stalling on developing the Harvard Connection website. They raise their complaint with Harvard President Larry Summers (Douglas Urbanski), who is dismissive and sees no value in either disciplinary action or Thefacebook.Meanwhile Thefacebook is a monster hit, garnering 900 users on the first day. within a few days it is a verb.
Saverin and Zuckerberg meet fellow student Christy Lee (Brenda Song), who asks them to "Facebook me", a phrase that impresses them. As Thefacebook grows in popularity, Zuckerberg extends the network to Yale University, Columbia University, and Stanford University. Eduardo wants to monetize Facebook with advertising, but Mark resists since he wants to retain the "exclusive" nature of the website. Eduardo plans a trip to NYC with potential advertisers, but Mark scuttles each of those meetings with his deplorable attitude.
Lee arranges for Saverin and Zuckerberg to meet Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who presents a "billion-dollar" vision for the company that impresses Zuckerberg (he agrees with Mark that Facebook is cool, and putting ads on it would kill the "cool factor"). He also suggests renaming the site Facebook (at that point Facebook was in 29 schools and had 75000 members). At Parker's suggestion, the company moves to Palo Alto, with Saverin remaining in New York to work on business development. At that point Mark owned 65%, Eduardo 30% and 5% for a programmer Dustin (Joseph Mazzello).
There is a big deal made about when Eduardo was accused of animal cruelty for feeding chicken (in the mess) to a chicken. Eduardo was forced to carry a chicken as part of his initiation rite at a club. Mark was angry as this led to negative publicity for Facebook. Saverin puts another $18K into the account to help Mark move to Paolo Alto.
After Parker promises to expand Facebook to two continents, Zuckerberg invites him to live at the house he is using as company headquarters. Sean tells Mark the story of the guy who started Victoria's secret so that nerds could buy lingerie without looking like perverts. He sold the company for $4MM, only to find that it was worth $500MM in 2 yrs. Sean sells Mark on the idea to see it all the way through and not cash out too soon
While competing in the Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard against the Hollandia Roeiclub, the Winklevoss twins discover that Facebook has expanded to Europe with Oxford, Cambridge and LSE, and decide to sue the company for theft of intellectual property.Meanwhile, Saverin objects to Parker making business decisions for Facebook and freezes the company's bank account in the resulting dispute. Mark is furious since the servers crashing even for a day would damage the reputation of the company. Severin relents when Zuckerberg reveals that they have secured $500,000 from angel investor Peter Thiel (Wallace Langham). Saverin signs the new documents without having his own lawyers look up the agreements as he trusted Mark. Mark owns 51%, Saverin 34%, Dustin 6.81%, Sean 6.47%. Peter Thiel 7%.
when Facebook hits a million members, Mark calls Saverin for a celebration. Plus, case equity makes an investment offer that is hard to turn down. Saverin becomes enraged when he discovers that the new investment deal allows his share of Facebook to be diluted from 34% to 0.03% while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. He confronts Zuckerberg and Parker, and Saverin vows to sue Zuckerberg before being ejected from the building. Saverin's name is removed from the masthead as co-founder.Later, Parker is apprehended for cocaine possession at a party celebrating the 1 millionth user. He attempts to blame Saverin, so Zuckerberg cuts ties with him.
In separate depositions, the Winklevoss twins claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea, while Saverin claims his shares of Facebook were unfairly diluted when the company was incorporated. Marylin Delpy (Rashida Jones), a junior lawyer for the defense, informs Zuckerberg that they will settle with Saverin since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Zuckerberg's callous attitude will make him unsympathetic to a jury. Alone, Zuckerberg sends a Facebook friend request to Albright and repeatedly refreshes the page.Mark pays the Winklevosses $65MM. Saverin received an undisclosed amount and was restored as the co-founder of Facebook. The company has 500 MM users and is valued at $25Bn.
