Winklevoss twins to continue legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg
Winklevoss twins to continue legal battle with Mark ZuckerbergIn a 2008 settlement with social networking titan Facebook, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss garnered a windfall now estimated at more than $140 million (Rs 625 crore) over charges that founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea. But now they want to undo that settlement, claiming they are owed moreu00a0-- perhaps $500 million (R2,200 crore), The New York Times reports.
Hopping mad: Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss attend The Social Network
premiere in Paris in October, 2010. Pic/GettyimagesThis month, the twins and another Harvard student, Divya Narendra, plan to ask a federal appeals court in San Francisco to undo the deal so they can pursue their original case against Facebook and Zuckerberg, and win a richer pay day. They could, though, lose it all.
Still, they say it's not about the money, it's about the principleu00a0-- and vindication. "The principle is that they didn't fight fair," said Tyler Winklevoss during an interview recently. "The principle is that Mark stole the idea."
His brother, Cameron, chimed in: "What we agreed to is not what we got."
Facebook denies it did anything improper and says the Winklevosses simply suffer from a case of "settlers' remorse".But the brothers get riled up when they talk about their battle with Zuckerberg. "It shouldn't be that Mark Zuckerberg gets away with behaving that way," said Cameron.
In the past, Zuckerberg has denied he stole the Facebook idea from the Winklevosses, saying they planned a dating site, not a social network. While the Winklevosses could end up losing their settlement, the risks for Facebook are high as well.
If the court unwinds the agreement, the company will have to decide whether to offer them a richer settlement or face a trial. Recent trades on a private exchange suggest that Facebook, which is not a public company, now is worth about $50 billion (Rs 2.2 lakh crore), and the company may not want the negative publicity associated with a trial, especially if it decides to move forward with a stock offering.
| Fb beats google |
| >>In yet another example of its popularity, Facebook was crowned the top-visited site in 2010, toppling Google, according to Experian Hitwise.
>>Facebook accounted for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November, while Google ranked second with 7.19 percent of visits. Yahoo Mail, Yahoo and YouTube rounded out the top five.
>>Facebook was also the most-searched term. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian was the top personality searched, Lady Gaga the top artist, Star Wars the top movie and Dancing With the Stars the top television show that people searched for.u00a0-- Agencies |
