Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t take too kindly to competition, it seems. According to the Huffington Post, “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal” by Nick Bilton, featured a quote from Zuckerberg saying that Twitter was “such a mess, it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in.”

The book claims that Zuckerberg made the comment to a few friends “within the last three years” after he made two failed attempts at purchasing Twitter.

The book was released earlier this week and profiles the short-messaging company using interviews with former and current employees and associates.

The book quoted an email sent from co-founder Ev Williams to the board, detailing why the sale probably wasn’t a good idea:

It seems to me, there are three reasons to sell a company, Ev wrote in an e-mail to the board outlining why they should decline Facebook’s offer. 1. The price is good enough of or a value that the company will be in the future. (“We’ve often said that Twitter is a billion dollar company. I think it’s many, many times that,” Ev wrote.) 2. There’s an imminent and very real threat from a competitor. (Nothing is going to “pose a credible threat of taking Twitter to zero.” 3. You have a choice to go and work for someone great. (“I don’t use [Facebook]. And I have many concerns about their people and how they do business.”)

At the time, during 2008, Twitter had only 11 million users, compared to today’s 550-million plus active users. It seems Williams was able to see the potential that Twitter could be.

Shares of Twitter spiked to above $50.00 a share during its IPO debut.