Facebook Close to Resolving Origin Claims?
An uncomfortable challenge to the popular college student-networking site Facebook may be near settlement.
Three former Harvard students sued Facebook claiming that the idea for the social networking site was theirs, the New York Times reports. Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss went to Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. The popular site boasts some 69 million users and has been valued at as much as $15 billion.
According to the Times, the brothers, along with Divya Narendra, eventually founded ConnectU. But they claimed they initially hired Zuckerberg to help them create a dating site called the Harvard Connection. Instead, Zuckerberg worked on his own site.
Facebook reacted to the federal suit in Boston with a countersuit in California accusing ConnectU of unfair business practices. The Times notes that the parties have been in mediation and are close to a deal.
