Source :indiaTimes , posted ON 12 Feb 2012 AT 12:53:42
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook filed to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering. Here are a few highlights of its meteoric rise, several of which were chronicled in David Fincher's seminal Oscar-winning 2010 movie, "The Social Network":
October 28, 2003
Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard psychology sophomore, writes "Facemash," a website that asked users to judge students' attractiveness based on their dorm-directory photos. The authorities -- and many students -- were not amused.
February 4, 2004
Zuckerberg launches Thefacebook.com, a social network that allows users to create basic profiles including personal information and photos.
February 10, 2004
Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narenya send Zuckerberg a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Zuckerberg of independently developing thefacebook.com while he was hired to work on their social networking project, HarvardConnection.
June 2004
Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, invests $500,000 in Facebook.
May 26, 2005
Accel Partners, the venture capital firm headed by investor Jim Breyer, invests $12.7 million in Facebook, valuing the company at roughly $100 million.
October 24, 2007
Microsoft Corp announces that it purchased a 1.6 per cent share of Facebook for $240 million, giving the company a total implied value of around $15 billion.
April 7, 2008
Facebook settles with the founders of "ConnectU", the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra, for a purported $65 million, according to promotional material later published by ConnectU's lawyers.
May 26, 2009
Russian investor Yuri Milner's Digital Sky Technologies invests $200 million for a 1.96 percent stake, bringing Facebook's value down to $10 billion.
June 3, 2010
Zuckerberg sweats profusely as he takes questions about Facebook's privacy policy while onstage at the All Things Digital conference. The episode, which the Twittering classes dubbed a "Nixon Moment," renewed questions about Zuckerberg's viability as the CEO of a company rumored to go public soon.
June 30, 2010
In one of the more bizarre twists in Facebook's history, New York businessman Paul D. Ceglia files suit against Zuckerberg, claiming he had struck a deal with the founder in 2003 for half of Facebook's revenue and rightfully owned 84 per cent of the company. Three successive lawyers withdrew from his legal team within a period of four months in late 2011. The litigation remains ongoing.
October 10, 2010
Columbia Pictures releases " The Social Network," a film about Facebook's beginning, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin.
January 2, 2011
Facebook raises $500 million from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company at $50 billion.
January 2011
Goldman controversially markets as much as $1.5 billion worth of Facebook shares to its private investors, but withdraws the offer from American clients on January 18 following intense media coverage and scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The offer was withdrawn because of accusations that it ran afoul of regulations prohibiting share-placement sponsors from aggressively promoting a deal to potential investors.
November 29, 2011
Facebook agrees to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived users on what information it would keep private. The incident underscored how user concerns about privacy were spurring top-level government scrutiny of Silicon Valley.
January 25, 2012
Trading of Facebook shares is halted on the secondary market as rumors of an impending IPO gain steam.
February 1, 2012
Facebook files its Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to raise $5 billion in a highly anticipated IPO. Reuters
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