Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg won the latest legal battle against his former Harvard classmates who accused him of having stolen their idea for Facebook, a multimillion-dollar feud made famous on the silver screen, "The Social Network."
On April 12, a U.S. appeals court ruled that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss must accept a settlement with Facebook that had been valued at $65 million. The twins argued that deal was unfair because Facebook hid information from them at the time.
The twins, who studied at Harvard at the same time as Mr Zuckerberg, were denied the right to challenge an earlier settlement over Facebook's origins.
As depicted on screen in The Social Network last year, the Winklevoss twins claimed that Mr Zuckerberg stole the idea for the social networking site from them.
In 2008 the brothers agreed to settle for £12.2 million and a partial ownership of the company.
They then returned to the courts, claiming that Facebook had been incorrectly valued and so their stock was not worth as much.
The twins, along with Divya Narendra, started a company called ConnectU while at Harvard. They say that Zuckerberg stole their idea. Facebook denies these claims.
The three had agreed to a settlement that had been valued at $65 million. But they argue that based on an internal valuation that Facebook did not disclose, they should have received more Facebook shares as part of the deal.
Facebook took in $1.2 billion of revenue in 2010's first nine months, according to documents that Goldman Sachs provided to clients to entice investors in a special fund set up to invest in the giant social networking firm.
The company was valued at $50 billion as part of that transaction.
A lower court had granted Facebook's request to enforce the settlement with the Winklevoss twins and Narendra. The 9th Circuit agreed on Monday.
Facebook deputy general counsel Colin Stretch said the company appreciated the court's careful consideration of the case, and was "pleased" it ruled in their favor.
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