ConnectU

From the Life-Is-Unfair Files: You’re Welcome, Winklevii. Love, Zuck.

Kara Swisher in Social on February 3 at 8:40 am PT

That’s right, folks, the rich do get richer, especially if they pursue their case well past the point of shame.

Appeals Court Judges Seem Skeptical of Winklevii Claims

Liz Gannes in Social on January 11, 2011 at 2:06 pm PT

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have spent a lot of time in court, trying to thwart Facebook Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the rulings rarely seem to go in their favor. But the Olympic rowers and one-time social networking entrepreneurs were back at it this morning in San Francisco for their biggest hearing yet, in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Over Here, Winklevii! NetworkEffect Goes to Court.

Liz Gannes in Social on January 11, 2011 at 4:00 am PT

Today the NetworkEffect staff of one is packing up the MacBook Air and heading to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for a scheduled hearing of “The Facebook, Inc. v. ConnectU, Inc.”

When Facebook Bought ConnectU From the Winklevii (Or, Parsing Legal Filings for Fun)

Liz Gannes in Social on December 10, 2010 at 8:30 am PT

Earlier this week there was some confusion about outlets reporting that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss had filed another lawsuit against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their social networking idea. The brief was actually filed back in June, but it’s still interesting reading.

BoomTown's Top 10 List of Fact-Challenged Revelations That Should Be in the Facebook Tell-All Book

Kara Swisher in News on June 24, 2009 at 3:34 pm PT

How much is BoomTown and everyone else in Silicon Valley trying to nab a copy of Ben Mezrich’s likely-to-be-entirely-made-up-but-who-cares tale of dirty doings at Facebook? Muchety-much! But, so far I have come up peanuts in grabbing an early copy of the work of “fact”-ion–titled “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal”–which is set to come out July 14, along with a movie later. Facebook is not pleased, of course, and will likely be challenging Mezrich’s work as specious dreck, but here’s my own list of 10 completely made-up, utterly fabricated, just-call-me-Jayson-Blair facts that should be in the book.

Law and Disorder: The Curse of the Winklevii

Kara Swisher in News on February 13, 2009 at 12:08 am PT

One thing that’s nice in these volatile times is that the Winklevoss identical twins–aka the Olympic rowing hunks whom Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg seems to have repeatedly dunked since college–can always be relied upon to create nonstop entertainment for those riveted to their increasingly kooky lawsuit against the hot social-networking site. In any case, it’s only the legal hijinks–either via rank incompetency or, more likely, creative leaking–that I want to know more about, especially since release of heretofore confidential information seems to keep seeping out of this case like some hole-plagued rowing shell.

Caveat Emptor, Eh, Microsoft?

John Paczkowski in News on February 12, 2009 at 7:17 am PT

Looks like Microsoft’s $240 million equity stake in Facebook hasn’t exactly retained its value. When it was announced in October of 2007, the 1.6 percent stake valued the social network at $35.90 per share, or a stupefying $15 billion. But in a court hearing this past June, Facebook appraised itself at $8.88 per share. It’s new self-proclaimed market value: $3.7 billion.

Winklevoss Brothers, Mark Zuckerberg Has Sent You a $65 Million Gift

John Paczkowski in News on February 10, 2009 at 11:25 am PT

The inane dispute over the provenance of Facebook apparently ended in a multimillion dollar resolution. Facebook has reportedly paid the founders of ConnectU $65 million to settle a lawsuit that accused founder Mark Zuckerberg of lifting the social network’s source code and business plan when he worked for it as a programmer.