billionaires

A Harvard homecoming for Facebook tell-all

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Ben Mezrich's new book "The Accidental Billionaires," a dramatic and contested account of the early days of social network Facebook, is on the fast track to Hollywood.

But Thursday night's inaugural public event for the book, which first hit stores on Tuesday, was a humble affair well suited to this relatively quiet university town. Held in the Brattle Theatre, a basement-level space in a 120-year-old brick building just off Harvard Square, Mezrich was interviewed on a small stage by Scott Stossel, managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, his onetime roommate, and a fellow Harvard … Read more

Facebook movie screenplay reportedly doesn't suck

Whoa! Blogger Carson Reeves of Scriptshadow got his hands on the screenplay for "The Social Network," the adaptation of Ben Mezrich's semi-salacious Facebook tell-all "The Accidental Billionaires," and he gives it a thumbs-up.

More specifically, he said that the 162-page script, penned by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, "really resonated with me" and categorized it as "impressive." For those of us who have been following the development of the (unauthorized) Facebook tell-all, which hits bookstores on Tuesday, and its impending screen adaptation, this is a bit of a surprise.… Read more

'Accidental Billionaires' is deliberately careful

This review contains some spoilers about the plot of "The Accidental Billionaires," but most of them are common knowledge to people familiar with Facebook's history.

There's a reason why there aren't more lurid tell-all books about Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial elite: Generally, their lives are kind of a yawn.

Author Ben Mezrich attempts to prove that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is an exception to the rule in "The Accidental Billionaires," a testosterone-flavored tome of beach reading that hits stores on July 14. CNET News obtained an advance copy.

Telling the tale of Facebook'… Read more

Facebook movie pinning down director, cast

David Fincher is in "advanced talks" to direct the Columbia Pictures movie about the origins of Facebook, according to Variety.

The movie, based on Ben Mezrich's upcoming "The Accidental Billionaires," was written by "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin. It's being produced, Variety reported Tuesday, by Scott Rudin and Michael De Luca along with Dana Brunetti and actor Kevin Spacey. Variety said the movie is called "The Social Network." We hear this is a very preliminary working title. (It, obviously, could also be called "Accidental Billionaires.")

Fincher's … Read more

Facebook tell-all 'Accidental Billionaires' on sale in July

This one sure snuck up on us: "The Accidental Billionaires," author Ben Mezrich's presumably tawdry take on Facebook's origins, is hitting bookshelves on July 14.

Last we'd heard, it was getting released this fall.

You probably know the plot by now: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with Harvard classmate Eduardo Saverin ( a co-founder who is no longer affiliated with Facebook and has had some legal beef with Zuckerberg over the years) allegedly started the site to meet women. In due time, they got rich and out of control. Or at least that's how Mezrich, … Read more

Zuckerberg gets poked off Forbes billionaire list

A while back we predicted that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in danger of losing his title as the world's youngest billionaire due to the maddening ascent of teen diva Miley Cyrus. But, Forbes magazine says, Mark Zuckerberg, who's just shy of his 25th birthday, has indeed lost his title as the world's youngest billionaire--simply because he's not a billionaire anymore.

He's still fabulously wealthy, obviously, and clearly stands a chance of making it back onto the list. But his fortune is tied closely to Facebook's valuation, and with the worldwide recession in effect, … Read more

Oracle dangles $13.6 million bonus over Ellison

As Oracle heads into 2009, CEO Larry Ellison has a $13.6 million carrot dangling in front of him.

That's the maximum bonus award the billionaire will be eligible for under the company's 2009 bonus plan, which was approved by shareholders during Oracle's annual meeting last week.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing:

Under the Bonus Plan, participants will be eligible to receive awards based upon the attainment, in fiscal 2009, and certification of, certain performance criteria established by the Compensation Committee. For fiscal 2009:

(a) Mr. Ellison, our Chief Executive Officer; Mr. (Jeff) Henley, … Read more

Finding those elusive open-source billionaires

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has weighed into the open-source billionaire debate with a great piece on where to find the open-source billionaires. Steven notes that one place to look is Google and other companies that depend upon open source to build their businesses, but his analysis goes a bit deeper:

Developers can make millions, even hundreds of millions, but technical brilliance almost never come with the business genius and/or amorality required to make billions. They're really completely different skills sets....

The open-source developers become millionaires. The old-school hardware, Sun; software, Novell; and Internet, Yahoo companies take a major step towards open source. Everybody's happy....… Read more

If I were a billionaire Juliette Binoche would have talked to me

Yesterday when going through Passport Control to board the Eurostar, I bumped into Juliette Binoche (of Chocolat fame) (or someone who looks and speaks exactly like her).

Whatever my kids might think, having one's picture on the Internet does not make someone famous. Not even their dad. Just ask Juliette.

I bumped into her when getting into the short line. She turned, looked at me, and then called to her friend in front of me in the line,

I think I'll just go to the executive lounge, instead.

...where I could not go, as she was in First … Read more

The rise of the open-source billionaire

Bernard Golden almost certainly hits it spot on when he suggests that we won't have any open-source billionaires, per se, but rather billionaires built on the foundation of open source. He doesn't come out and say it, but I suspect he has Google, Digg, and others like this in mind - companies that depend fundamentally on open source, yet aren't open-source companies, per se.

Because the cost of software has plummeted, new companies are being formed that take advantage of open source to create new offerings -- and these new companies will build enormous fortunes on the back of open source. I refer to this phenomena as "the migration of margin."… Read more