Winklevosses sailed

The star couple of very greedy twins: Cameron and Tyler Winklevossa , after 7 years of litigation against Mark Zuckerberg and The Facebook finally calmed down. Get $ 65 mln. In 2008 in the form of shares when the valuation of the company was approximately $ 32 billion. Brothers still seemed few and they were trying to get 4 times used for a greater share in the Federal Court of Appeal, leaning on the argument that Facebook has provided them false company valuation information. But apparently, it became obvious that the distance has passed and it’s time to dry the oars. After a statement made in April 2011 that they would challenge the decisions of lower courts and go about their business until the Supreme Court, the Winklevosses changed their minds .

In a statement that the twins and their friendDivya Narendra did yesterday at the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, and they mentioned that after a “close examination” they decided not to escalate their appeal against Facebook. This means that they agree with the amount of the settlement of the conflict, with the current assessment of the social network, at least twice as large as originally mentioned.

These heroes, now widely known thanks to Fincher's " Social Network ", began their career growth in 2004, filing the first lawsuit accusing Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea of ​​a CONNECTU startup , as well as causing damage in the form of slowing down the development of the web service, and gradual create Facebook.

The end of this story would not have been so beautiful if it hadn’t for Facebook’s answer to the rebellious couple: “We have considered this business closed for a long time and we are glad to see that other parties now agree with us.”

Update : Looks like they haven't arrived yet. The Los Angeles Times found out that after refusing the lawsuit in a San Francisco court, the Winklevoss twins went straight to the Boston Federal Court and now they will judge their factology: how much Facebook really cost at the time they were transferred to the securities paid out of lengthy litigation.

Let me remind you that the brothers have long wanted (in fact, since 2008, when they received their amount) a 4 times larger share of the company’s shares, arguing that Facebook did not inform them about the verification of an independent auditor, who valued the company’s shares for less than $ 9 when paying bonuses to new employees of the company (standard, in general, practice in Silicon Valley).

Interestingly, the Winklevosses, contrary to the first impression, are judged for a reason. Firstly, if they hadn’t done it at all, today they would not have had capital valued by the market at about $ 200 million (without deducting legal expenses, not in stocks, but in cash, of course).

And secondly, these two brothers have a father named Howard Winklevoss, a former professor at the Wharton School of Business, evaluation expert. Anyone who wants to break the amicable agreement with such a person is waiting for lengthy lawsuits and he was directly involved in all trials against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

The judge who sentenced the case in a San Francisco court wrote that: “With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial adviser, they made a deal that looks very attractive in light of the latest market activity,” while pointing to a continuous increase in the value of securities : "The share owned by the twins will continue to grow, as investors invest in Facebook with an increasing market value."

It remains only to envy their patience and wish good luck. Facebook shareholders are unlikely to want to see the tail behind them in the form of two greedy Winklevosses.

via Reuters , TechCrunch , Wired , update from LATimes and WSJ .