Legal tussle sends Huffington Post creators into “bizarro world”
Arianna Huffington, creator of the Huffington Post (one of America’s most popular news websites), is being sued by two political consultants who claim Huffington stole their idea.
Peter Daou and James Boyce have filed lawsuits in the US to claim ownership of part of the company but Huffington and co-founder Ken Lerer have hit back, accusing the pair of trying to extort money.
In a statement Huffington and Lerer described the duo behing the lawsuit as “two political operatives who we rejected going into business with or hiring six years ago, and who had absolutely nothing to do with creating, running, financing or building the Post.”
They huffed: “We’ve now officially entered into bizarre world.”
The case has parallels with Mark Zuckerberg’s legal battles with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who claim part of Facebook’s $7bn empire, although the Huffington Post has yet to turn a profit.