Has Meta Ever Bought WhatsApp and Instagram to NIP Competition in The Bud? That question will be central to a major american lawsuit in the coming week. If the Judge Declares The Acquisitions Illegal, The Company May Have To Split Up The Apps.
The Lawsuit started on Monday and is expected to last two months. Meta Director Mark Zuckerberg was Already Present for Questioning on the First Day. A lot is at stake for him in the coming period, as he has to justify why he bought instagram (in 2012) and Whatsapp (in 2014).
Accordance to the prosecutor, The American Regulator FTC, Those Acquisitions Are Illegal with the Knowledge of Today. Meta would Have Stifled Competition by Taking over the Apps Before they Became Too Big and Powerful.
The FTC is trying to reverse the acquisitions and is focusing on selling WhatsApp and Instagram. Meta Says It Does Not Have A Monopoly On The Social Media Market and Believes That Is Still Enough Competition from Other Platforms, Such as Tiktok, X and YouTube.
When Meta Bought Instagram More Than Ten Years ago, the Company Paid $ 1 Billion for It. Two Years later, The Company Took over WhatsApp for $ 19 Billion. Accordance to the ftc, meta paid too much to strengthen its own position as market leader.
Illegal Monopoly or Not?
Zuckerberg Has Appearances Against Him, because in 2008 he wrote in a notorious email “It is better to buy than to compete”. Later, Just before the purchase of Instagram, the top executive wrote about “neutralizing” the app.
The Boss of Meta Admits in the Courtroom that Instagram Threateded to Become an Important Competitor for Facebook at the Time. But His Lawyers Argue That Instagram and Whatsapp Were much Smaller Apps at the time of the acquisition than they are now: “Meta Bought the apps to Improve Them and Let Them Grow Alongside Facebook. That has never been illegal and it zhouldn’t
In The Coming Weeks, The FTC Will Try to Convince the Judge That Meta Has A Monopoly Position on the Social Media Market. Even if that successeds, the regulator must still prove that meta acted illegally by Maintaining that that dominant position.