The real value of Facebook's stock appears to have become a contentious issue - while a $240 million investment by Microsoft for a 1.6 percent stake in the company in 2007, puts Facebook's value at $15 billion, the company claims its own evaluation to be $3.7 billion.

In June last year, Facebook's self appraisal pegged the price of its privately held stock at $8.88 per share; while the Microsoft investment put the related figures at $35.90 per share.

The incongruity with regard to Facebook's actual worth has come to light because of the revelations pertaining to the Palo Alto-based company's $65 million lawsuit settlement with ConnectU.

In its lawsuit against Facebook, ConnectU contended that the social network's founder Mark Zuckerberg - who worked for ConnectU, then called Harvard Connect - had stolen the concept of Facebook from ConnectU founders, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Though Facebook did it best to keep the figures of the settlement amount given to ConnectU under wraps, information about it was accidentally given away by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges - the law firm that represented ConnectU in its lawsuit against Facebook!

Despite all the contention about the real value of Facebook's stock, it is likely that the figures are even below the company's own appraisal, as recession causes havoc to the values of companies worldwide.