Facebook dispute 1
There was no Hollywood happy ending for the Winkelvoss twins, reports Swedish business magazine Affärsvärlden. After six years of litigation, the brothers have lost their last battle against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
A settlement was arranged in 2008 after the twins had accused Zuckerberg of having stolen the idea for Facebook from them when they were classmates at Harvard. The new ruling was handed down Monday, 11 April, and had to do with the twins’ appeal against the settlement, which gave them stock in Facebook worth about 65 million dollars. In their appeal, the brothers claimed that Facebook had tricked them into believing the stock was worth four times more than it was.
The judge denied their motion and stated in his opinion that the Winkelvosses 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.
The twins have the option of appealing to the US Supreme Court, but it is unlikely, according to Affärsvärlden, that the higher court will agree to hear the case.
Facebook dispute 2
According to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the ink was hardly dry on the Winkelvoss ruling before the next man had stepped forward to demand financial redress from Facebook. New Yorker Paul Ceglia is now demanding half the company. He claims that he invested a thousand dollars in Facebook back in 2003, and that if his investment is put in relation to the company’s appreciation in value, his share would now amount to about 25 billion dollars.
Facebook’s legal team dismissed the claim as ‘ridiculous’ and the lawsuit as ‘fraudulent’ and say they are looking forward to defending the suit in court. Ceglia claims there is proof in the form of e-mails and a contract dated 2003 between Mark Zuckerberg and himself regarding a project called ‘The Face Book’. More is undoubtedly to come.
