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Meta to face trial over its WhatsApp & Instagram acquisitions
The post Meta to face trial over its WhatsApp & Instagram acquisitions appeared first on Android Headlines.
Summary: The FTC is taking Meta to trial over its WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions. The government body called them “killer acquisitions” that crushed competition. A court ruling against Meta could force the company to sell both platforms and dismantle its empire.
Meta (when it was known as Facebook back then) was huge and dominated the social media space even before it acquired WhatsApp and Instagram more than a decade ago. However, it’s safe to say that those acquisitions further cemented the company’s position in the market. But now it looks like Meta could be forced to sell off its acquisitions.
A deal that never should have happened
The US Federal Trade Commission is targeting those deals in a landmark antitrust lawsuit. The FTC is calling them “killer acquisitions” because they effectively killed off competition before it could thrive. The US government now argues that it should never have approved those billion-dollar deals over a decade ago.
If the court agrees with this sentiment, Meta faces the possibility of a breakup. The results of the trial could force Meta to sell both Instagram and WhatsApp. It will also rip apart the Meta empire and wipe out hundreds of billions in market value in the process. In a statement issued to the BBC, a Meta spokesperson said, “More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared our acquisitions, the commission’s action in this case sends the message that no deal is ever truly final.”
According to experts, Meta will likely argue that Instagram users now have a better experience since it acquired the platform. However, Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor of antitrust at Vanderbilt Law School, thinks the FTC will counter this by saying that the acquisition of Instagram is to neutralize a rising competitive threat to Facebook.
Allensworth says that emails sent by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, could offer the most convincing evidence. “He said it’s better to buy than to compete. It’s hard to get more literal than that.”
Potential Trump intervention
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg has lobbied US President Donald Trump in person to drop the case against the company.
So, will this ultimately lead to Meta being forced to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram? Some analysts on Wall Street don’t think so. Some believe that this will probably lead to a settlement and are hopeful Trump will influence the outcome. Speaking to Bloomberg, Shweta Khajuria, an analyst at Wolfe Research LLC, said, “I don’t think investors are bracing for a breakup. A settlement would be a more favorable outcome than stretching this out, which leaves an overhang on the stock.”
The post Meta to face trial over its WhatsApp & Instagram acquisitions appeared first on Android Headlines.
