Monday, April 11, 2011

Twins Peaked: Facebook Prevails

The 9th U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss can't back out of a settlement agreement they entered into as part of a lawsuit alleging that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook.

As part of the settlement agreement, the twins were paid $20 million in cash and $45 million worth of stock valued at $36 per share. Today, the estimated value of Facebook is $50 billion.

The Court wrote as follows:
 
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

At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.

With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial advisor, they made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity

For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so.

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