Snapchat CEO Admits He Screwed His Friend, While Nobody Is Listening
It's a big week for legal settlements! With the entire tech and business world paying attention to new iPhones, Snapchat just issued a little press release admitting Reggie Brown did indeed help create the app.
The admission—and presumably hefty, undisclosed settlement sum—comes after a year of denials from CEO Evan Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy, who claimed Brown's contribution to the company had been minimal before he'd been completely forced out.
Given that Snapchat is "worth" $10 billion, according to the venture capitalists inflating this paper price tag, Brown's stake in the company would have been "worth" a gargantuan amount. Instead, he'll have to make due with being merely rich, a footnote in the great saga of Kappa Sigma handjobs, pissy emails, and Taylor Swift rumors that make up The Snapchat Story. It's worked out well enough for the Winklevii, but they had that certain Harvard villainy thing going for them—plus being handsome identical twins helps.
Brown doesn't have that. He never became a character in this story. So now he'll become no one again, clutching a check, and this line from a press release dumped during an Apple keynote:
Discussing the settlement, Spiegel 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."
They'll all be laughing about this at their five year reunion, I'm sure.