By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer<\/p>\n
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Meta has prevailed over an\u00a0existential challenge to its business<\/a>\u00a0that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued his ruling Tuesday after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May. His decision follows two separate rulings that branded Google an\u00a0illegal monopoly in both search<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0online advertising<\/a>, dealing yet another regulatory blow to the tech industry that for years enjoyed nearly unbridled growth.<\/p>\n The Federal Trade Commission \u201ccontinues to insist that Meta competes with the same old rivals it has for the last decade, that the company holds a monopoly among that small set, and that it maintained that monopoly through anticompetitive acquisitions,\u201d Boasberg wrote in his ruling. \u201cWhether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now. The Court\u2019s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so.\u201d<\/p>\n Meta Platforms Inc., the FTC had argued, has maintained a monopoly by pursuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s strategy, \u201cexpressed in 2008: \u2018It is better to buy than compete.\u2019 True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats.\u201d<\/p>\n During his April testimony, Zuckerberg pushed back against the FTC\u2019s contention that Facebook bought Instagram to neutralize a threat. In his line of questioning, FTC attorney Daniel Matheson repeatedly brought up emails \u2014 many of them more than a decade old \u2014 written by Zuckerberg and his associates before and after the acquisition of Instagram.<\/p>\n While acknowledging the documents, Zuckerberg has often sought to downplay the contents, saying he wrote them in the early stages of considering the acquisition and that what he wrote at the time didn\u2019t capture the full scope of his interest in the company. But the case was not about the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp more than a decade ago, which the FTC approved at the time, but about whether Meta holds a monopoly now. The FTC, Boasberg wrote in the ruling, could only win if it proved \u201ccurrent or imminent legal violation.\u201d<\/p>\n The FTC\u2019s complaint said Facebook also enacted policies designed to make it difficult for smaller rivals to enter the market and \u201cneutralize perceived competitive threats,\u201d just as the world shifted its attention to mobile devices from desktop computers.<\/p>\n Meta said Tuesday\u2019s decision \u201crecognizes that Meta faces fierce competition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur products are beneficial for people and businesses and exemplify American innovation and economic growth. We look forward to continuing to partner with the Administration and to invest in America,\u201d the Menlo Park, California-based company said in a statement.<\/p>\n The social media landscape has changed so much since the FTC filed its lawsuit in 2020, Boasberg wrote, that each time the court examined Meta\u2019s apps and competition, they changed. Two opinions to dismiss the case \u2014 filed in 2021 and 2022 \u2014 didn\u2019t even mention popular social video platform TikTok. Today, it \u201cholds center stage as Meta\u2019s fiercest rival.\u201d<\/p>\n Quoting the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, \u201cthat no man can ever step into the same river twice,\u201d Boasberg said the same is true for the online world of social media as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe landscape that existed only five years ago when the Federal Trade Commission brought this antitrust suit has changed markedly. While it once might have made sense to partition apps into separate markets of social networking and social media, that wall has since broken down,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley said Meta\u2019s win \u201cis not necessarily surprising considering the lengths it\u2019s gone to in recent years to keep up with TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut from a regulatory standpoint, Meta is far from out of the woods: next year, major social networks will face landmark trials in the US regarding children\u2019s mental health,\u201d she added. \u201cStill, today\u2019s win is surely a boost for the company as it battles criticism and questions over how its massive AI spending will ultimately benefit Meta in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n Facebook bought Instagram \u2014 then a scrappy photo-sharing app with no ads and a small cult following \u2014 in 2012. The $1 billion cash and stock purchase price was eye-popping at the time, though the deal\u2019s value fell to $750 million after Facebook\u2019s stock price dipped following its initial public offering in May 2012.<\/p>\n Instagram was the first company Facebook bought and kept running as a separate app. Up until then, Facebook was known for smaller \u201cacqui-hires\u201d \u2014 a type of popular Silicon Valley deal in which a company purchases a startup as a way to hire its talented workers, then shuts the acquired company down. Two years later, it did it again with the messaging app WhatsApp, which it\u00a0purchased for $22 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n WhatsApp and Instagram helped Facebook move its business from desktop computers to mobile devices, and to remain popular with younger generations as rivals like Snapchat (which it also tried, but failed, to buy) and TikTok emerged. However, the FTC has a narrow definition of Meta\u2019s competitive market, excluding companies like TikTok, YouTube and Apple\u2019s messaging service from being considered rivals to Instagram and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Meta has prevailed over an\u00a0existential challenge to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,156169,156171,451,156170,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-300070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-facebook-monopoly","11":"tag-ftc-antitrust","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-meta-ftc-case","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}