Kozinski Shuts down Winkelvoss Twins Facebook Suit

April 11th, 2011

Chief Judge Kozinski issued an opinion in the case of THE FACEBOOK, INC. V. CONNECTU, INC., finding that the settlement the parties reach should not be disturbed.

From the conclusion:

“The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace. And the courts might have obliged, had the Winklevosses not settled their dispute and signed a release of all claims against Facebook.

With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial advisor, they made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity. See Geoffrey A. Fowler & Liz Rappaport, Facebook Deal Raises $1 Billion, Wall St. J., Jan. 22, 2011, at B4 (reporting that investors valued Facebook at $50 billion FACEBOOK v. CONNECTU, INC. 4911—3.33 times the value the Winklevosses claim they thought Facebook’s shares were worth at the mediation).

For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so. At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.”

In other words, Zuckerberg FTW.