Facebook, ConnectU to Settle Suits, NYT Reports

Wade Roush4/7/08

The “Bits” technology blog at the New York Times is reporting today that Facebook and Boston-based ConnectU are nearing a settlement in the long-running dispute over whether Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg based his business on an idea (and on software code) appropriated from ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss when all of the parties were students at Harvard. The report, attributed to an unidentified “person briefed on the status” of ConnectU’s suit and Facebook’s countersuit, says that all motions in the case have been terminated pending a deal, the terms of which are not being revealed. The case has been a longstanding embarassment for Facebook, cresting with New York-based 02138 Magazine’s publication of Zuckerberg’s online diaries and other court documents.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush.