SnapChat settles lawsuit with co-founder Reggie Brown

The long-running case has been settled for an undisclosed sum, the messaging company announced on Tuesday. SnapChat has settled a long-running lawsuit with its co-founder, Frank “Reggie” Brown, who had accused chief executive Evan Spiegel and chief technology officer Bobby Murphy of unfairly removing him from the company.


Brown claimed in the suit that co-founders Spiegel and Murphy failed to appropriately credit or compensate him for his contributions to the company, including the original idea of disappearing photo messages and patents for SnapChat.


“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr Brown and the company,” said Spiegel in a press release – which was issued during a busy Apple product launch on Tuesday.


‘We acknowledge Reggie’s contribution’


“We acknowledge Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground,” concluded Spiegel.


The settlement is described as being on “mutually agreeable terms” but those terms were not disclosed. The statement from SnapChat acknowledges that “Reggie Brown originally came up with the idea of creating an application for sending disappearing picture messages while he was a student at Stanford University” and that “he then collaborated with Spiegel and Murphy on the development of Snapchat during its early and most formative days”.


The lawsuit has been going on for more than a year and a half with many attempts at settlement. Brown was seeking significant damages in the $100s of millions. Snapchat was recently valued at $10bn.



Guardian.com