Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, along with Divya Narendra, are at it again. The three men, who claim Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from them, have decided to effectively turn down an agreed-upon $65 million settlement and seek a much larger payout from the company.
We won’t bother going over too much of the backstory at this point; books, movies, and media coverage have made the tale pretty well known. The key point is just that the founders of ConnectU accepted a settlement of $20 million in cash and $45 million in stock, only to argue that the valuation of the stock left them shortchanged.
Now, as Maggie Shiels reported late yesterday, "On Tuesday, they will ask the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to undo the original settlement so they can legally pursue Facebook for more money and once again try to wrest an admission from Mr Zuckerberg that he stole their idea."
That could mean trouble for either side. Facebook would perhaps prefer not to have its CEO challenged, and losing hundreds of millions of dollars over this would no doubt be a negative outcome.
On the other hand, Narendra and the Winklevoss twins risk coming away with nothing this time if the court sides against them.
We’ll see what happens, assuming an out-of-court, behind-closed-doors settlement doesn’t take place.