Winklevoss twins end Facebook row

Mark Zuckerberg's former business partners say they will accept 2008 deal

Winklevoss twins end Facebook row

Mark Zuckerberg's former business partners say they will accept 2008 deal

It's been a long time coming, but the Social Network twins taking on Facebook have finally decided to throw in the towel in their legal dispute.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss claimed Harvard University classmate and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the website.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have finally decided to throw in the towel in their legal dispute with Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg

Now the Olympic rowing twins have decided against appealing to the Supreme Court over a ruling upholding their $65 million (Rs 292 crore) settlement.

The good news for them is that in the settlement of $20 million (Rs 9 crore) cash and $45 million (Rs 202 crore) stock, the stock is now worth more than $100 million.

The Winklevoss brothers competed in the 2008 Olympics and their battle with Zuckerberg was dramatised in 2010 film The Social Network.

The twins had claimed three years ago that Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world's most popular social networking website.

They tried to undo an accord agreement and claim more money by suggesting it was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them.

The 6'5" twins wanted to appeal an April ruling by a San Francisco federal appeals court upholding the settlement, which it called 'quite favourable'.

But in a filing on Wednesday with that court, they said that after 'careful consideration' they had decided not to seek Supreme Court review.

The California case had been brought by ConnectU, which they set up with Harvard student Divya Narendra, who joined in Wednesday's filing.

Zuckerberg (27) created Facebook in 2004 in his Harvard University dormitory room and he is now worth
$13.5 billion.

A Facebook spokesman said, "We've considered this case closed for a long time, and we're pleased to see the other party now agrees."

No reason has yet been given for the Winklevoss twins' decision and their lawyer Jerome Falk has not yet commented.

Analysts estimate Facebook could be worth more than $100 billion should it conduct an initial public offering, perhaps in early 2012.

Another lawsuit
Even while Zuckerberg won the case against the Winklevoss duo, Paul Ceglia claims he owns half of the social networking site.
He also passed a lie detector test and has demanded that Zuckerberg go through one.