We’ve seen the whole “successful startup begets jilted cofounder” thing many times before — there’s Facebook and Eduardo Saverin, Twitter and Noah Glass and (most recently) Snapchat and Reggie Brown. The legal battle that last pair has been embroiled in has finally come to an end, though: a statement released earlier today confirms that both parties have resolved their little spat. And really, what better way to quietly end a year’s worth of startup drama than to issue a press release while Apple’s going crazy?
Not quite up on the story? Well, Mr. Brown filed a lawsuit against Snapchat last year alleging that his Stanford roomies Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy (now the startup’s CEO and CTO, respectively) forced him out before the app took off. Neither party disclosed the terms of the settlement, but Spiegel noted in a statement that the team now acknowledges “Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground.” That’s a pretty dramatic shift away from the company’s earlier stance — it noted in a statement released not long after the lawsuit went public that Brown’s claims were “utterly devoid of merit.” We’re also willing to bet that Brown’s new status as a key member of Snapchat’s founding team will net him at least a little equity — that could pay off big time if the startup gets acquired (remember when Facebook tried?) or if it manages to IPO down the road. Of all the questions still surrounding the end of the argument, one stands above all the rest: who’s going to play the Snapchat founders in the inevitable movie adaptation?
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Source: BusinessWire