Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also made a high-profile appearance

Facebook shocked the tech community with its $1 billion louis vuitton sunglasses acquisition of Instagram, but perhaps more shocking is the price the photo-sharing app's CEO originally wanted for his company: US$2 billion. During three days of quiet negotiations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg halved Kevin Systrom's asking price--all without involving bankers or his own board of directors, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). In fact, Zuckerberg, who controls roughly 57 percent of the company's voting rights, had pretty much closed the deal with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom before even informing the board of the acquisition. The board "was told, not consulted" about the deal Ray ban sunglasses on April 8, the day before the rest of the world learned of the deal, one person familiar with the matter told the Journal. Zuckerberg began the negotiations on April 5 by calling Systrom and inviting him to drive down from San Francisco to meet with him at his Palo Alto home, the Journal reported. Zuckerberg reportedly informed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg of the decision, but she did not participate in the negotiations. While the 18-month-old startup had yet to record any revenue, Zuckerberg was attracted by the mobile photo app's explosive growth in user base. Two burberry handbags days before the two 20-something chief executives started talking, Instagram released an Android version of its app and immediately saw its membership base growing at the rate of 2,000 people a minute. In the following 10 days, the free app that had previously been available only for iOS devices would add 10 million members. In a moment of odd timing, Marc Andreessen--a Facebook board member and an early Instagram investor--was surprised to run into Systrom at Zuckerberg's house the day the deal closed. Andreessen was reportedly waiting in Zuckerberg's living room for his weekly meeting with Facebook's CEO while Systrom was in another room getting his company board's approval for the deal. Nugent, who told the gun rights group last week that he would burberry ties be "dead or in jail" next year if Obama is re-elected in November, appeared on conservative radio host Glenn Beck's show on Wednesday. He was asked if he had heard from the Secret Service. "We actually have heard from the Secret Service, and they have a duty, and I salute them. I support them and I'm looking forward to our meeting tomorrow," Nugent said on Beck's show. "I'm sure it will be a fine gathering louis vuitton handbags backstage in Oklahoma," Nugent said. The 63-year-old Nugent is set to perform in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on Thursday. Nugent, the singer of such 1970s hit songs as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Motor City Madhouse," is a longtime advocate for gun rights and in recent years he has campaigned for conservative politicians and causes. A Secret Service spokesman declined to directly address whether the federal agency tasked with protecting the president would be meeting with Nugent. "We are aware of the incident with Ted Nugent, and we are oakley sunglasses conducting appropriate follow-up," said spokesman Brian Leary in a statement. "We recognize an individual's right to freedom of speech but we also have a responsibility to determine and investigate intent." Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also made a high-profile appearance and speech at the NRA convention attended by Nugent, who has endorsed Romney. Nugent's comments last week at the NRA convention were seized on by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), in a fundraising email on Monday. U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Cheapest louis vuitton men t shirts sale white 2012 Schultz, chairwoman of the DNC, said at the time, "threatening violence -- or whatever it is that Nugent's threatening -- is clearly beyond the pale." In other comments at the convention in St. Louis last week, Nugent aimed his barbs at other officials in Obama's administration. "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November," Nugent said at the convention. A spokesman for Nugent could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. But in his appearance on Beck's radio show, Nugent said he was not calling for violence. "Every reference I made, whether it's a shot across beats by dre tour the bow or targeting the enemy, it always ended the sentence with 'in November at the voter booth,'" Nugent told Beck. Following Nugent's comments last week, a Romney spokeswoman said the candidate believes "everyone needs to be civil," but stopped short of condemning Nugent.