The Winklevoss twins have given up on their attempt to get more money out of Facebook, and are to accept their earlier settlement of $65 million.
In April, an appeals court ruled that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, along with Harvard classmate Divya Narendra, now say they won’t appeal to the Supreme Court.
Last month, the twins’ lawyers, Howard Rice, said the pair planned to appeal to the Supreme Court after failing in an attempt to get a full appeals court review. The twins haven’t given a reason for their change of heart.
The twins claim the initial idea for Facebook was theirs, a story dramatized in the movie the Social Network. They accepted a cash-and-stock deal in 2008, but later objected on the grounds that they’d been misled about the value of the shares they received.
The shares were then valued at around $45 million, but given the phenomenal rise in the company’s fortunes, would now be worth as much as $150 million.
The settlement doesn’t mean much of a break from the courtroom for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He’s still embriled in a dispute with wood-pellet salesman Paul Ceglia, who also claims that a large stake in the company belongs to him.
