Former StudiVZ exec claims Facebook\'s legal action result of failed acquisition. Image: StudiVZ.
Fresh titbits of intrigue have surfaced today regarding the recent legal targeting of German social network service StudiVZ by hulking beast and market leader Facebook, which saw the latter accusing the former of copyright infringement related to its similar design and presentation.
More pointedly, it has emerged that Facebook’s decision to sue StudiVZ in late July only came about after the German service refused to bow to an acquisition attempt made by Mark Zuckerberg’s massively popular social network.
According to the International Herald Tribune, a former StudiVZ executive has stepped from the shadows claiming that, prior to filing its legal action, Facebook had been embroiled in purchase negotiations for several months with StudiVZ.
The executive, who requested a veil of anonymity, also said that Facebook’s desire to snap up StudiVZ stemmed from its ongoing failure to transplant Facebook’s global popularity into the German market.
Internet audience figures for the month of June, as offered up by research outfit comScore, reveal that StudiVZ boasts some 12.2 million users across Germany, while Facebook’s recently launched .de German variant is barely mustering 10 percent of that number -- despite leading the global market with around 132 million users.
“Facebook may have the superior technology, but it doesn’t have the users in Germany,” insisted the executive. “That is what Facebook wants with StudiVZ.”
In terms of the emergent pricing standoff, which apparently led to Facebook’s legal action, the former StudiVZ suit further claims that Holtzbrinck Gruppe, the publishing company that owns the German social network site, wants to reap considerably more than the 85 million Euros (approx. $134 million USD) it paid for the service back in January of 2007.
“This lawsuit is an attempt to encourage Holtzbrinck to sell StudiVZ,” said the executive bean spiller, who added that Facebook is looking to apply pressure on a renowned business owner that has the “enviable position of not having to sell.”
Facebook, which lodged its copyright complaint against StudiVZ through the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, has declined to comment on the matter, according to an official spokeswoman.
StudiVZ, which is short for “Studentenverzeichnis” or “Student Directory”, has also not yet issued any official reaction.
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