Today in Tech: Is Facebook worth $104 billion?

“Regardless of how you feel about digital ecosystems or about Google, please do not take the free and open internet for granted from government intervention. To the extent that free flow of information threatens the powerful, those in power will seek to suppress it.” — Google co-founder Sergey Brin (Google+)

* During several days of secret negotiations between Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, both founders tossed around numbers, including a potential value of $104 billion for Facebook. As for the social network itself, the company may go public on May 17. (The New York Times and TechCrunch)

* A court battle between Oracle (ORCL) and Google (GOOG) has begun, with the former claiming the latter’s popular Android operating system infringes on several patents and copyrights. (CNNMoney)

* Ebay’s (EBAY) latest quarterly sales and profits topped analyst estimates, with revenues climbing 29% to nearly $3.3 billion compared with the quarter before. (Bloomberg)

* Director James Cameron and Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are among several backers who are reportedly behind a new project that will “create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources.'” Could that new industry be asteroid mining? (The Verge)

* Tim Cook, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential” list this year. (Fortune)

* Black car app Uber is testing out lower-priced taxi options in Chicago. (TechCrunch)

* Why we need a “fresh paradigm” for tech start-ups. (The Atlantic)

* Fun factoid: Video game consoles consumed nearly 70% of their energy in 2010 while idle. (The Verge)

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