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by redrobot5050 6332 days ago
Agreed. Keep in mind that Facebook's original V.C. Investments came from the C.I.A.'s "Advanced Technology Research and Development Venture Capitial" Arm. (Say that three times fast.)

Governments being governments, they'd likely throw good money after bad. They might also feel, having gotten everyone in one central database, that Facebook is "too big to fail".
1 comments
andreyf 6332 days ago
Keep in mind that Facebook's original V.C. Investments came from the C.I.A.'s "Advanced Technology Research and Development Venture Capitial" Arm.

Citation, please?

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derwiki 6332 days ago
I hear this every now and again but it always sounds a little too conspiracy theory for me. Is there any legitimacy to this claim?
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sachinag 6332 days ago
Facebook is not listed as a portfolio company of In-Q-Tel:

http://www.iqt.org/technology-portfolio/index-alphabetical.h...

Given how comprehensive it is, I'd be very surprised if In-Q-Tel was all cutesy and shady about an investment in Facebook (a company that doesn't meet their objectives in any way).

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redrobot5050 6331 days ago
http://www.accel.com/company/index.php

Accel is another VC company who's board members overlap with In-Q-Tel. From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5...

The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. One of the company's key areas of expertise are in "data mining technologies".

Breyer also served on the board of R&D firm BBN Technologies, which was one of those companies responsible for the rise of the internet.

Dr Anita Jones joined the firm, which included Gilman Louie. She had also served on the In-Q-Tel's board, and had been director of Defence Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defence.

Anyway, I'm not saying Facebook is "big brother". I just think DoD is interested in advanced data mining and prediction capabilities. Also, they're interested in recruiting through Facebook, but that's entirely unrelated.

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