Winklevoss bros to continue legal battle over Facebook

By Kul Bhushan | Updated on 24-Jun-2011

24-Jun-2011

Battle over Facebook gold is still not over. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, after having decided not to pursue suit against Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg in the US Supreme Court, have lodged another case. According to reports, the Winklevoss brothers and their business partner Divya Narendra said in their status report filed in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts that Facebook had “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence” in their 2008 settlement.

Earlier, the twin brothers and Narendra announced they would not pursue an appeal to the SC against a verdict that the 2008 agreement should stay. They had then called for scrapping the deal as Facebook allegedly did not furnish correct internal valuation.

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The new legal suite, however, is based on a different argument. The Massachusetts claim says Facebook should have disclosed the instant messages from Zuckerberg that emerged online last year. The instant messages opened fresh leaf of controversy as it threw altogether a new light on relationship between the two parties. The claim in Massachusetts court say that those communications should have been furnished during the settlement.

The twins and Narendra, classmates of Zuckerberg in Harvard University, claimed in their 2008 lawsuit that Zuckerberg had lifted the idea for a social-networking website from their ConnectU site. The two parties then agreed to a settlement under which the trio had accepted USD 65 million. But later the trio sought dismissal of the deal, claiming it was based on an inaccurate valuation of the company.

Facebook is one of the leading social-networking websites and is reportedly worth over USD 100 billion. Facebook has rejected claims made by Winklevosses and Narendra and is of the view the complainants have received their fare share. The legal tussle was depicted in the Academy Award-winning 2010 movie “The Social Network”.

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