Facebook's Saverin: 'No hard feelings' against Zuckerberg

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin says he bears no resentment against Mark Zuckerberg for being forced out of the company and even goes so far to call the social network's CEO a "visionary."

"I have only good things to say about Mark, there are no hard feelings between us," Saverin said in an extensive interview with Brazilian publication Veja, according a Forbes translation. "He was a visionary, he always knew that the only way to get Facebook to grow was to maintain its central idea, that of people truly presenting themselves as they are, without nicknames or pseudonyms."

Saverin expressed similar sentiments earlier this month on his personal Facebook page as the social network put the final touches on its much-anticipated IPO (although he managed to misspell his former partner's name): "... I especially wanted to congratulate Mark Zukerberg on keeping tremendous stead-fast focus, however hard that was, on making the world a more open and connected place."

Saverin, who helped Zuckerberg launch Facebook at Harvard in 2004, was edged out by Zuckerberg the next year when the social network began to take off. Saverin should have been focusing on reforming the company as a Delaware corporation so it could accept investments. But wasn't, and that was the key factor in his ouster.

Despite being forced out and his shares in the company being famously diluted, his holdings in the company is estimated to be worth more than $3 billion.

Saverin, who recently made headlines again by renouncing his U.S. citizenship, took issue with "The Social Network," the 2010 movie about Facebook's early days and Zuckerberg's rocky relationship with Saverin and the Winklevoss twins.

"That's Hollywood fantasy, not a documentary. Facebook wasn't built out of a Harvard dorm window. And I would never throw a laptop at someone, like it appears in the movie. Not even at Mark."