Winklevoss Twins Drop Appeal of Facebook Settlement

Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic(SAN FRANCISCO) -- Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have finally decided that a $65 million payout from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is good enough for them.

The brothers, who were briefly business partners with Zuckerberg when they all attended Harvard University, have dropped any further appeals of the 2008 settlement.

Before then, the “Winklevii,” as they became to be known, and fellow business partner Divya Narendra had sued Zuckerberg, claiming he had stolen their idea for a social network for Harvard students.  Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004 while the plaintiffs devised a site called ConnecU.

In a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra said they wouldn’t appeal the settlement to the U.S. Supreme Court without explaining why they gave up their legal battle.

The settlement breaks down to $20 million in cash and $45 million in stock, although the shares are now believed to be valued at well over $100 million and could grow substantially when Facebook goes public next year.  The company is estimated to be worth $70 billion.

Much of the brothers’ legal battle with Zuckerberg was depicted in the movie, The Social Network, a semi-fictionalized account of the Facebook saga.

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