Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who (along with their business partner Divya Narendra) accuse Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea, got a big write-up in The New York Times for their ongoing legal dispute with Facebook.
Wea4a4ve covered this case a number of times before. The twins settled with Facebook in 2008 for $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook shares, but tried to back out of the deal almost immediately when unflattering instant messages from Zuckerberg came to light. They moved forward with an appeal earlier this year, arguing that their shares might be worth much less than Facebook claimed, according to a valuation made at the time. (VentureBeat&'s Owen Thomas argued that Facebook is a4Aplaying a dangerous gamea4 by claiming that it had no obligation to disclose the lower valuation.)
So whata4a4s new in the Times story The legal details are pretty much the same, but Times reporter Miguel Helft interviewed the twins and offers a better sense of why they&'re pursuing the appeal. After all, no matter what Facebooka4a4s valuation was at the time, the a4AWinkleviia4 (the twins&' popular nickname from the movie The Social Network) seem guaranteed to make a bunch of cash from their shares once Facebook has an initial public offering. By throwing out the settlement, therea4a4s a chance they could end up with nothing at all. But the twins said it&'s about the principle, not the money.
a4AThe principle is that they didna4a4t fight fair,a4 Tyler Winklevoss said. a4AThe principle is that Mark stole the idea.a4
The twins later told Helft (in unison!) that Zuckerberg only deserves credit for a4Anot screwing upa4 their idea, and that if he hadna4a4t started Facebook, their site ConnectU could have been the one with hundreds of millions of users.
If we are to take the twins at their word, this helps explain why Facebook hasna4a4t been able to make this lawsuit go away. Ita4a4s not about money, but credit, and the fact that the Winklevii want to be more than footnotes in one of the tech worlda4a4s biggest success stories.
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Companies: Facebook
People: Cameron Winklevoss, Mark Zuckerberg, Tyler Winklevoss
Companies: Facebook
People: Cameron Winklevoss, Mark Zuckerberg, Tyler Winklevoss
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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