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10月25日据外电报道 微软宣布与社交网站Facebook签署协议，将支付2.4亿美元购买该网站1.6%的股份。此前Google也曾提出报价，但被Facebook拒绝。
微软与Facebook进行了数周的谈判，协议也使这家网站的总估价达到150亿美元。Facebook是由马克-祖克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）于4年前在哈佛大学宿舍里创立的。微软与Facebook在去年已经建立广告销售合作关系，随着Facebook向美国以外的市场扩展，微软也将获得在国外销售网络广告的权利。
微软表示，自己将成为拥有近5000万用户的Facebook的独家第三方广告平台。一直在争夺网络网络用户和应用软件市场的微软与Google，都对Facebook日益增长的用户群和广告潜力感兴趣。在6月份结束的上一财政年度里，微软的网络广告收入上升21%至18.4亿美元，但与Google相比只是小巫见大巫，同期Google的广告收入达到133亿美元。
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BOSTON (AP) -- The owners of a rival social networking Web site are trying to shut down Facebook.com, charging in a federal lawsuit that Facebook's founder stole their ideas while they were students at Harvard.
The three founders of ConnectU say Mark Zuckerberg agreed to finish computer code for their site, but repeatedly stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas.
The lawsuit's allegations against Zuckerberg include fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. It asks the court to shutter Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to ConnectU's founders.
Facebook has responded by asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Facebook started in 2004, a few months before ConnectU went online, and now has 31 million users, compared with about 70,000 users for ConnectU, based in Greenwich, Conn. Last year, Facebook turned down a $1 billion buyout offer from Yahoo Inc.
The three founders of ConnectU say Mark Zuckerberg agreed to finish computer code for their site, but repeatedly stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas.
The lawsuit's allegations against Zuckerberg include fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. It asks the court to shutter Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to ConnectU's founders.
Facebook has responded by asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Facebook started in 2004, a few months before ConnectU went online, and now has 31 million users, compared with about 70,000 users for ConnectU, based in Greenwich, Conn. Last year, Facebook turned down a $1 billion buyout offer from Yahoo Inc.
