The Winklevi finally lose to Zuckerberg's Facebook in pointless court battle
If you need advice on how to shame yourself, just ask Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
The six-foot-five Olympic athletes and members of Harvard University have officially lost the latest legal battle in their lame bid to extract more money from social network Facebook.
As anyone who watched The Social Network or read The Accidental Billionaires knows, the "Winklevi" launched a lawsuit after Mark Zuckerberg allegedly stole their ConnectU idea and forged Facebook behind their backs.
They were awarded a $65-million settlement - as if they're not already loaded - yet refused it, insisting they deserved more due to the skyrocketing value of Zuck's company.
Except, even with a team of exceptionally gifted and well-compensated lawyers, it proved impossible for the Winklevoss twins to convince the court that they deserve a bigger slice of the pie. After all, ConnectU was never really even launched, and when it was, experienced no popularity. The odds of them having ultimately created something as successful as Facebook has become are extremely low.
Quoth The Globe and Mail:
They had agreed to a settlement that had been valued at $65-million. But they argue that based on an internal valuation that Facebook did not disclose, they should have received more Facebook shares as part of the deal. Facebook took in $1.2-billion of revenue in 2010’s first nine months, according to documents that Goldman Sachs provided to clients to entice investors in a special fund set up to invest in the giant social networking firm. The company was valued at $50-billion as part of that transaction.
A lower court had granted Facebook’s request to enforce the settlement with the Winklevoss twins and Narendra. The 9th Circuit agreed on Monday. “At some point, litigation must come to an end,” Kozinski wrote. “That point has now been reached.” Facebook deputy general counsel Colin Stretch said the company appreciated the court’s careful consideration of the case, and was “pleased” it ruled in their favor.
It's a classic case of greed and glutton. They could have taken $65 million and been done with it, already wealthy enough to retire before this. Instead, they dragged themselves through a swamp of public shame and embarrassment and came out with the same amount of money, minus all the extra lawyer fees and lost time.
