A federal appeals judge has denied the twins attempt to unwind a 2008 settlement, and says they must accept the deal, as is.
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, 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, has now killed their appeal:
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, at a new valuation of $70 billion, the Winklevoss/Narendra shares in Facebook are worth just over $200 million, an appreciation of 440 percent in just three years.
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Apr 2011 1:27
