Facebook Putting Lawsuit To Rest With Settlement

The NY Times Bits Blog is reporting that Facebook is finalizing a settlement with Mark Zuckerberg's former classmates and ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their colleague, Divya Narendra. The trio have said that Zuckerberg had stolen their idea after they had hired him to work on their own project. Facebook counter sued for unfair business practices but now appears to have come to a settlement agreement with ConnectU, no doubt hoping to make the whole thing go away.

Facebook's big challenge

Three former Harvard school mates of Mark Zuckerberg are alleging, in court, that Zuckerberg stole their ideas and created Facebook before they were able to launch their own competing site, ConnectU. Zuckerberg is being accused of fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The 3 ConnectU founders claim that they asked Zuckerberg to create code for their site and that he promised to be working on the code when in fact he was creating Facebook. The lawsuit seeks to shut down the rival site, claiming that Facebook was able to be first to market and gain the advantage. Facebook lawyers say ConnectU has no evidence for "broad-brush allegations" against Zuckerberg. Globe and Mail story here.