Facebook IPO: Winklevoss twins could reap big payday

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Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss could have a lot to gain when Facebook begins selling its stock to the public: as much as $300 million.

The Menlo Park, Calif., social networking giant filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, the first step to an initial public offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $100 billion.

The Winklevosses rose to pop-culture fame claiming that they -- not Mark Zuckerberg -- invented Facebook. And they wanted to risk their windfall to prove it.

But their case got tossed, and now they may be all the richer for it.

The ambitious young Olympic rowers made famous in the Oscar-winning ‘The Social Network’ contested an out-of-court settlement they reached with Facebook, saying they were duped into accepting less than they should have.

In the end, they took their settlement in stock, and now, even at the low end of a Facebook valuation, that stock would be worth $225 million.

Tyler Winklevoss declined to comment. But on Twitter, Cameron Winklevoss wrote: ‘We r excited 4the #FacebookIPO + wish the company + all involved the very best,an amazing accomplishment!’

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-- Jessica Guynn