Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is only 23 yrs old and already owner and founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most sought after properties. Wall Street is completely infatuated and consumed with this man’s every move. Will he sell? Will he open the company up to major outside investors such as Microsoft who is rumored to want to lay $500million in Zuckerberg’s hands for a potential %5 stake in the company which would value Facebook at $15billion.

Zuckerberg has already raised $37.7million from venture capitalists. Yahoo was interested in buying Facebook for a reported $1billion and Zuckerberg verbally agreed to sell but then Yahoo’s stock price plunged 22 percent overnight and Yahoo’s then CEO Terry Semel lowered the offer to $800million, but Zuckerberg and his board walked away from the offer after that. Yahoo then returned with the original $1billion offer but it was too late.

Facebook is now the most buzzed about company in Silicon Valley and Zuckerberg is continuously compared to visionaries like Steve Jobs (Apple, ipod, iphone) and Bill Gates. Facebook has opened up a platform for independent developers to implement software for the 40million some registered users. Since then some 3,200 new applications have sprung up on the site, a number that is growing at about 180 a week.

Facebook is generating more than a billion page views a day. Half of it’s $150million revenue comes from an advertising deal with Microsoft. So much for thinking Zuckerberg was literally nuts for turning down the $1billion offer from Yahoo. Now everyone in the valley is looking at this kid with green dollar signs in their eyes!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY9HD00zQvA]

Lakers owner Jerry Buss has finally made statements concerning the future of his star and franchise player Kobe Bryant.

Buss indeed did, telling three Los Angeles-area beat writers covering training camp in Honolulu on Wednesday that he “would certainly listen” to trade offers for the two-time NBA scoring champion.

“At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody,” Buss said, discussing Bryant publicly for the first time since the often-frustrated Lakers’ star asked to be traded at the end of last season. “It’s just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit.

“You can’t keep too many loyalties. You’ve got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it.”

Shaq said….”I guess it’s business before loyalty. But, wow. He said that?”

Bryant has four years worth $88.6 million left on the seven-year contract he signed a day after O’Neal was traded, but can terminate the deal in two years. That would leave $47.8 million on the table.

“I tend not to think in basketball terms that many years down the road because things change so dramatically, but he could test the waters at that point,” Buss said. “If he still is in that frame of mind, then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent. I would like to think that we win between now and then so it doesn’t come up.”

“You have to get comparable value when you make a trade,” Buss said. “It’s very hard to trade somebody like him because people who have enough material to make it worthwhile are usually contenders and they don’t want to make the trade.”

Buss also said he occasionally told Bryant of certain offers, none of which he found fair to the Lakers, and acknowledged frustration at losing out to Boston for Kevin Garnett‘s services.

“I told him that I would try my best to accommodate his wishes, but that I could not afford to let him go unless we got comparable talent — if there was such a thing,” Buss said.

The 29-year-old Bryant is about to begin his 12th NBA season — all with the Lakers.

“Dr. Buss’s comments today provided more insight to a conversation we shared in Barcelona earlier this summer,” Bryant said in a statement issued Thursday. “I have touched on this conversation and other conversations within the Lakers’ organization during the recent months and again at the Lakers’ media day. I have nothing further to add and look forward to the upcoming season with my teammates.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson said if Kobe stays, he must put the distractions aside.

“My message to Kobe was that if you could play with your heart in this game, on this team, you’ll be fine. If you can’t, if you have divided loyalties, then you can’t do it.”

When asked if Bryant is focused, Jackson said, “No, he’s not. He’s distracted, obviously.”

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In a recent interview with Allhiphop these are some of the interesting things that Jigga man had to say…

AllHipHop.com: Do you still feel like you’re sort of competing with B.I.G. and Pac even though they’ve been gone for over 10 years?

Jay-Z: The funny things about that I really had to start slowing down because after a while when you start putting out so much, as great as they was it’s kind of not a fair argument because they didn’t get a chance to go through this thing – you have to go
through a lot, you gotta go through a lot of scrutiny and maintain a certain level. Though Pac has a lot of work, he put it all out at one time. If I made 17 records or when I was making Reasonable Doubt them s**ts would be retarded. They didn’t get a chance to really fulfill their potential. When somebody’s been around five years, it’s different, and six and seven and as long as you be around and the longer you stay relevant, it’s like “Damn, you can’t really argue because they didn’t really get a chance to go through it.” You don¹t
know what would have happened. It’s like, you know, incomplete. What happens? What happens on a 7th album? 8th album? That shit is very difficult. Very difficult. That ain’t easy. That’s difficult. You know, ni**as when you fresh and crispy with the new slang – you could do that. You can just hit n***as with the slang, make the hook with the hot slang and ride it out. But to really make, 9, 10 [albums], it’s something different.

AllHipHop.com: Is there a possibility of you and LL Cool J lyrically going at each other?

Jay-Z: Nah, I don’t think that’s [possible]. I’m sick of that. I don’t even want to be in that type of…its getting nasty for me. LL Cool J is great. You don’t have to market LL Cool J. If people were saying [LL’s last album Todd Smith] was fantastic, lets push it. That’s different. At some point you gotta take responsibility for your s**t too. With Kingdom Come, maybe it was too sophisticated. Maybe I f*cked up. I’m not saying, “F**k L.A. Reid [Def Jam chairman].” I mean, you made the album.

Artists, we’re like that s**t. When we [have success], its our fault – we did it. “And I told them “Bang kill n***a and they said go with kill bang n***a.” [laughter] My shit popped off and I told niggas, “[You] can’t tell me nothing.” When it don’t work, [artists are] like, “See, look what you did! You f**ked my s**t up!” I respect L. He’s a legend. I’m not doing that. What happens? What do I get? That’s what I’m like. What do I get? N***as are like, “So.” There’s no win in it for me. “So. You won.” You know what I’m saying?

For full interview…..

Allhiphop

Mychal Bell of the now historical “Jena 6″ case was ordered Thursday to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.

The decision came at the end of a two-day juvenile court hearing that was closed to the media and public.

Carol Powell-Lexing, one of Bell’s attorneys, said the judge’s decision would be appealed.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who has championed Bell’s case, denounced Thursday’s decision as “revenge” by the judge and called on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

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