Winklevoss twins accept final Facebook settlement of £48 million

Fans of the Facebook movie The Social Network will already be familiar with the “plight” of the Winklevoss twins, who claim Mark Zukerberg stole the idea for the world’s biggest social network (as well as a decent chunk of investment) from the twins. It’s lead to Zuckerberg’s longest-running court case in relation to his networking empire, but it seems now to have finally been put to rest.

In what is expected to be the final settlement, the Winklevoss brothers have accepted a $65 million (£48 million) payout from Facebook.

This newly agreed settlement follows the twins plans to appeal and undo the same settlement from 2008, an appeal that the Supreme Court turned down. Without the courts onside, the Winklevoss twins were fighting a losing battle, and this final settlement became inevitable.

“After careful consideration [the] appellants no longer oppose issuance of the mandate, and have no objection to vacatur of the stay of issuance of mandate,” said Winklevoss the filing.

Though few of us would turn our noses up at £48 million, it initially seems on the surface a fraction of Zuckerberg’s multi billion-dollar empire. However, Zuckerberg’s old Harvard pals have been shrewd here; of the settlement, only £12.5 million was paid in cash, the rest offered in shares. With Facebook reportedly now set to be worth more than £100 billion in the next 18 months, the Winklevoss twins are sitting on a growing goldmine.