I'm no lawyer, but this seems absurdly far-fetched. Facebook needs $300-500 million so that it can pay legal costs? Cuomo's investigation seems much more like the kind of stupid headline-chasing that politicians do every so often than it does a case likely to cost Facebook nine figures.
This ridiculousness of monster valuations and such is much more about Microsoft than Facebook. For Facebook, giving up a mere 5% for $300-500 million isn't, as they say, a choice--it's an IQ test. The money is great, but they don't need it for anything but general security. Explaining why they're after it is like explaining that a lottery winner is planning to pick up his check because it'll help him pay for his house. True, but not really relevant.
One danger though is that Cuomo may be incompetent and reckless. He's filling a position vacated by the enormously popular Eliot Spitzer, who won the race for Governor in a landslide. He may be trying to do the same thing without Spitzer's sensibility..
This ridiculousness of monster valuations and such is much more about Microsoft than Facebook. For Facebook, giving up a mere 5% for $300-500 million isn't, as they say, a choice--it's an IQ test. The money is great, but they don't need it for anything but general security. Explaining why they're after it is like explaining that a lottery winner is planning to pick up his check because it'll help him pay for his house. True, but not really relevant.