Brown alleges that he was forced out of the company shortly after its birth; or, two years before it held a valuation of 3 to 4 billion dollars. He's suing Spiegel, Murphy, and eight of their investors for 1/3 of the company. He also alleges a “breach of fiduciary duty,” which constitutes fraud.
On October 23, Brown and his lawyers filed new evidence to to the Los Angeles Superior Court, which Business Insider published today. It's pretty staggering. Brown dug up old Gchats and emails between himself and Spiegel in June and July of 2011, around the time of the app's launch (when it was still called Picaboo). Brown is called a co-developer as well as the CMO.
Spiegel even confirms in his deposition that Brown came up with the idea for the timer.
The Oct. 23 filing also pulled up this gem. Spiegel pimped Picaboo with emails to various media outlets beginning in July and continuing throughout the year. (BroBible got one too—he says he's a “certified bro,” and we'll get to the rest later.) Brown's lawyers compared the wording of the emails before and after Brown was forced out of the company. Look at the change in wording in the first sentence:
And for the record, here's the original email Spiegel sent to BroBible in 2011. He says he, singular, built the app over the summer—even though Brown was actually living with him in his own house. Devious!
You want your Social Network sequel? It's here. And it's sexty. (Christ, sorry.)
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