They did little more than just plant the idea for a social network into Mark Zuckerberg’s head, but the Winklevoss twins say they deserve a lot more than a measly $65 million payout.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who nobody had ever heard of before the movie The Social Network made Zuckerberg’s backstory common knowledge, accepted a $65 million settlement to their original lawsuit against Zuckerberg. But now they’re unhappy.
The twins, along with partner Divya Narendra, now say the social networking company misrepresented its value at the time of the settlement, and as a result they want millions more dollars.
The $65 million settlement involved $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock, at $36 a share. But they now claim shares should not have been that expensive so they deserve more.
“Facebook failed to disclose that at about the same time its board of directors had approved a valuation of $9 a share which was to be the basis of stock options for key employees. Facebook did not disclose this significant piece of information,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer Jerome Falk.
He called it a violation of federal security law.
I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty happy to receive $65 million for what was effectively just a few short conversations and some e-mail exchanges with Zuckerberg.
As depicted in The Social Network, the Winklevoss twins approached Zuckerberg with the idea for an exclusive online site only for Harvard students. Zuckerberg said he would help, only to run away with the idea on his own, and expanding the concept so it wouldn’t be restricted to one university.
The movie detailed several individuals who were portrayed as being duped or cheated by Zuckerberg, but in the end they all received very handsome settlements.
