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UPDATE: The Winklevoss twins just can't let Facebook suit die

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Jun 2011 12:54 User comments (13)

UPDATE: The Winklevoss twins just can't let Facebook suit die In an update to our earlier story, it appears the Winklevoss twins will just not quit in their quest to make more money from Facebook.
Despite killing their Supreme Court appeal yesterday, the twins and partner Divya Narendra have launched a new motion today, one that asks the court to figure out whether Zuckerberg and Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence" in the earlier (now settled case).

Original story after the break.

Seven years after they first filed suit against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, it seems the legal drama between Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and the social networking giant is coming to an end.

The twins have dropped their appeal and settled the case, two months after a judge bluntly told them they must accept the deal.

Along with Harvard classmate, Divya Narendra, the twins filed suit against Facebook in 2004 alleging that the concept for Facebook was stolen from them and their early work on HarvardConnection.



In 2008, Facebook agreed to settle, giving the trio a deal worth $65 million ($45 million in stock), with the majority in Facebook stock. At the time, the group was given $45 million in stock with Facebook valued at $15 billion. The twins filed suit again last year claiming Facebook had internally given itself a $3.7 billion valuation, and so the group was conned out of many more shares in the company.

The federal Judge, Alex Kozinski, killed the appeal in April:

At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached. The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace. They made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity.

Regardless, with Facebook now valued at $100 billion the Winklevoss/Narendra shares in Facebook are worth just over $300 million, an appreciation of 660 percent in just three years.

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13 user comments

124.6.2011 01:54

I'd say they'll end up thrown out of court.

224.6.2011 02:18

Great way to spend 300 million, paying off the lawyer fees. Way to go Winklewuss.

324.6.2011 02:50

Take the money and run. Proof that all Harvard grads aren't all that intelligent. Keep paying them lawyers and see where it gets you. Rich but less rich.

424.6.2011 03:16
Shadow159753
Unverified new user

I think they should have to give back all the money in any attempt to take it to court and if it gets thrown out, there money should go away and not be given back. See how many more trivial cases keep going to court.

524.6.2011 06:28

Originally posted by solamf30:
Take the money and run. Proof that all Harvard grads aren't all that intelligent. Keep paying them lawyers and see where it gets you. Rich but less rich.
I agree that they should drop this silliness, but they can't take the money and run...if they tried to, the stock value would evaporate before they could sell 10% of their shares.

624.6.2011 07:35

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Originally posted by solamf30:
Take the money and run. Proof that all Harvard grads aren't all that intelligent. Keep paying them lawyers and see where it gets you. Rich but less rich.
I agree that they should drop this silliness, but they can't take the money and run...if they tried to, the stock value would evaporate before they could sell 10% of their shares.

Of course not run, it's a very true point. But keep the hell away from the courts now, you got more than most people will ever see in their lifetime and is enough to feed several generations.

This is just greed of rich people who can't stand not getting their own way, yet suffers from a mindset in which they don't think to use their human intelligence to get them more money. What's worse, they've got more opportunity to start up then most, with Harvard stamped on their record of achievement and money to fund their ideas, and very likely good contacts too.

What d***s. One day I hope to have a successful business and be seeing a small fraction of this sort of money at the very least, but my kids will never be brought up like these two dummies obviously have and they'll know what work is.

If these were my sons I'd be publicly shaming them right now.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 24 Jun 2011 @ 7:42

724.6.2011 08:00

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Originally posted by solamf30:
Take the money and run. Proof that all Harvard grads aren't all that intelligent. Keep paying them lawyers and see where it gets you. Rich but less rich.
I agree that they should drop this silliness, but they can't take the money and run...if they tried to, the stock value would evaporate before they could sell 10% of their shares.
Facebook is expected to have an IPO soon with an expected valuation of $100 billion. So on that day or early the next sell your stocks, take your money and run
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 24 Jun 2011 @ 10:54

824.6.2011 11:32

Originally posted by 20TONS:
Great way to spend 300 million, paying off the lawyer fees. Way to go Winklewuss.
Remember guys, their dad is a partner at a big law firm, no lawyer fees to be paid. Some court fees I'm sure, but insignificant.

924.6.2011 11:37

I hate Zuckerberg and he's a total incompetent shmuck being advised on everything other than the technical aspects. He young, dumb and edited by ddp. He's patronizing, arrogant and just a edited by ddp. You can tell he doens't tell the truth when he's being interviewed and I GUARANTEE that he's stepped on these guys' toes. He is no different than Bill Gates regarding DOS in that he "contributed" to the FB creation and ran away with it.

In addition to that, he has violated and compromised users' security by allowing anyone to view anything, not prompted people or given them an EASY means of correcting and the website all-in-all is a total clusterf*ck of nonsensical information with no "flow" or cohesion.

I use FB once a month at best and work with a bunch of losers that can't peel themselves away for even one day. Those that are actually glued to FB in order to see what their "hoarded friends" are doing are just losers and moreover..........those that have hundreds upon hundreds of friends and befriend anyone just because they requested clearly need to feel better about themselves.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 25 Jun 2011 @ 12:17

1024.6.2011 12:57

Frankly, these 2 morons have enough to buy god & their still whining. The judge has already thrown the case out and mandated that they settle. Whomever puts their stamp of approval at the front office for this thing to heard for another court date is going to get their keister fired so fast there's going to be a smell of smoke and ass out the front door.

If the shutting down of this case by the first judge isn't an indicator of our judicial system being tired of the Legal Lottery I don't know what is.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 24 Jun 2011 @ 8:17

1124.6.2011 15:14

These twins are stressing so much over their stupidity at Harvard that they're going to stroke out. I wouldn't be upset about it either, two less rich a**holes on the planet sucking up oxygen.

1224.6.2011 17:08

sounds like a bunch of FB lovers. Shame!

1325.6.2011 16:10

im not a fan of facebook,but i really hope these greedy bastards end up with nada.

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