Snapchat settles ownership battle with early collaborator Reggie Brown
Snapchat on Wednesday announced that a year-long ownership dispute with a shunned founder of the app has been settled.
The founders settled with Brown for an undisclosed fee
Ousted co-founder Reggie Brown launched a lawsuit at the Superior Court of Los Angeles over a year ago claiming that he first came up with the concept of app which sends disappearing picture messages.
Brown claimed that he collaborated with app founder, and now CEO Evan Spiegel while at Stanford University. During this time Brown aided with Spiegel and CTO Robert Murphy during the app's formative years.
A Snapchat statement said that Brown reached a mutually beneficial settlement with the app - but did not reveal any specifics.
On the settlement, Evan Speigel said: "We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr Brown and the company.
"We acknowledge Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground.”
While it’s unclear what terms the app’s founders settled on, it was likely a substantial payment, especially after the ‘destructible image’ messenger app was valued at $10bn by firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer - a figure backed up by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.