Appeals Court Rules Against Facebook Twins

Posted 04/12/2011 at 6:30am | by Paul Lilly

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Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss will have to figure out a way to budget $20 million in cash and a stake in Facebook worth about $140 million and make it last the rest of their lives, because that's all they're entitled to, an appeals court ruled. The $20 million settlement and partial ownership in Facebook was the agreement the Winklevoss twins and Mark Zuckerberg came to back in 2008, but as Facebook ballooned in value, they wanted more, claiming that Zuckerberg wasn't completely forthcoming with information when they signed the settlement.

So who exactly are the Winklevoss twins? If you have to ask that question, then you haven't seen the movie The Social Network, a docudrama chronicling the rise of Facebook from a concept into the most popular social networking site on the planet. The twins accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea, which ultimately led to the multi-million dollar settlement.

"For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so. At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached," chief justice Alex Kozinski summarily said.

In all likelihood, this is the end of the road for the Winklevoss twins, unless they decide to take their case to the Supreme Court.

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