NYT reports that Facebook is settling with Cameron and Tyler WInklevoss, the two sons of a Wharton school professor and Olympic rowing hopefuls who claimed to have come up with the idea for Facebook.
I'm not going to rehash all of what I have previously written on how stupid this lawsuit was. However, I believe that Facebook should have fought this in open court.
Just a side note to this, while their father was paying for lawyers to negotiate, Cameron and Tyler raced in USRowing's first National Selection Regatta for this year's Olympic qualification.
While Tyler's boat finished 6th in the final, 25 seconds off the winning pair (which contained Micah Boyd, a Wisconsin alum and former teammate of mine - Go Badgers!) Cameron did not even show up to race his placement final.
Oh, another thing. In my previous article I noted that Howard WInklevoss started a business to import cheap Chinese-made rowing shells for the U.S. market. Well, his sons don't even compete in their dad's company's own boats. I guess when it comes to business, like father, like sons.
Bad business all around. This was extortion, and I have a feeling the VC's behind Facebook would rather settle and go for the IPO than clear Mr. Zuckerberg's name.
Too bad.
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