After Seven Years, The Winklevosses Give Up On Battle With Facebook
After seven years of lawsuits! … After reaching a $65 million dollar settlement with Facebook in 2008 which they then tried to rescind on the argument that Facebook gave them misleading information! … After vowing that they would challenge an April 2011 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court and take their case all the way to the Supreme Court, (!) the Winklevosses have just given up on their fight against Facebook.
In a statement made to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco today, the twins and friend Divya Narendra said that they have dropped the legal appeal of the most recent court ruling (in favor of Facebook) after “careful consideration.” Meaning they will take the original settlement, which is in stock now worth considerably more than $65 million.
The Harvard students filed their original suit against the social network in 2004 accusing Facebook CEO and fellow student Mark Zuckerberg of ripping off their CONNECTU idea, and subsequently creating Facebook.
The best part about the entire fight, which has seen the twins through their young adulthood? Facebook’s reaction to the news, “We’ve considered this case closed for a long time, and we’re pleased to see the other party now agrees.”
Sure, Zuckerberg stole their idea but could the Winklevosses been able to execute fb to the point it is at today? Crazy. What goes around, comes around though. This is what I know.
The twins filed a motion in a Boston federal court on a separate case alleging that Facebook “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence” — namely, online instant messages that they say help prove their claims. That case, which started with a copyright infringement complaint, has been pending since 2007.
Neel Chatterjee, counsel for Facebook, said in an e-mail that “these are old and baseless allegations that have been considered and rejected previously by the courts.”
The genesis of the dozens of court filings began in 2004, when the Winklevoss twins and a third Harvard classmate, Divya Narendra, filed suit against Facebook and Zuckerberg. The three alleged that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea for Facebook from them — an idea dramatized last year in the Oscar-nominated movie “The Social Network.”
Facebook promptly countersued the trio and their own social networking site, ConnectU, alleging that they had hacked into Facebook to steal data and spam users. The legal volley of claims and counterclaims went back and forth until 2008, when the Winklevosses and Narendra signed a settlement valued at $65 million, part in cash and part in Facebook stock.
But the trio later tried to pull out of the deal, alleging that Facebook had misrepresented the value of its stock. A judge ruled against them and forced the settlement to go through, but the Winklevosses and Narendra took the case to an appeals court.
In April, Judge Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, attempted to put the kibosh on the case. “At some point, litigation must come to an end,” Kozinski wrote in his decision. “That point has now been reached.” (Click here to read Kozinski’s ruling.)
That was the ruling the Winklevosses were considering appealing to the Supreme Court, but they filed a motion dropping that plan on Wednesday.
The Winklevosses’ attorney, Tyler Meade, declined to comment on the Thursday about the latest filing in Boston.
It continues~