Our comments and trackback policy You Link We Follow, You Comment We Promote

We reported last month about Facebook accusing the German social network, StudiVZ of copying Facebook’s design and the German social network terming it to be pure jealousy arising from Facebook’s failure to capture German social networking market. The latest report brings to notice a far more solid reason (or should I term it mud-slinging to show the other low).

The current controversy rises from reports by an anonymous executive of StudiVZ who stated that Facebook delved towards mudslinging and blame-game as it failed in attempts to acquire the German, StudiVZ. Why would Facebook want to buy it? Plain reason is that it has failed miserably to establish its hold in one of the largest Western market. Reports have it that StudiVZ has almost ten times the number of users in Germany that Facebook.de has (or 12.2 million users).

The attempts for the buy out failed largely because the owner of StudiVZ, the Holtzbrinck Gruppe, based in Stuttgart wants to cash in a pretty larger amount that that it had paid in January 2007 to buy StudiVZ (a reported $134 million). The executive also added:

This lawsuit is an attempt to encourage Holtzbrinck to sell StudiVZ.

And why not? The amount of success StudiVZ has amassed and given Facebook’s desperation gives more stubbornness to Holtzbrinck’s determination to clog the deal. The result is right here, Facebook accuses it of being its knock-off.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has made news with accusing or being accused of copying design and layout (Multiply and ConnectU). It is quite surprising as to how a global leader would stoop to such low a level (if the case is so in truth) and cry over a failed attempt to buy out a service and go hurling accusations of cheating ones design and creating a knock-off. Sounds pretty unprofessional to me at least but can we help it? Mark Zuckerberg is so young that he still has to let go off his childish habit of complaining to parents (read: courts) about anything that he can’t have.