The US FTC drops its administrative trial to block Meta's acquisition of Within less than a month after its federal court loss, handing a final victory to Meta
ORDER RETURNING MATTER TO ADJUDICATION AND DISMISSING COMPLAINT On February 10 … Muhammad Zuhair / Appuals.com : Meta Successful in “Within Unlimited” Acquisition as FTC Drops Antitrust Case Jonathan Chew / Tech in Asia : China leads investments while India dominates M&As The Economic Times : Edtech: M&A talks gain momentum amid a prolonged funding crunch Christopher Hutton / Washington Examiner : FTC abandons suit blocking Meta acquisition of VR developer Ashley Gold / Axios : After court loss, FTC dismisses Meta-Within case Reuters : US formally ends fight against Meta's purchase of VR content maker Within Unlimited Federal Trade Commission : Meta/Zuckerberg/Within, In the Matter of — In the Matter of Meta Platforms, Inc. … Tweets: Lee Hepner / @leehepner : Pointing to deficiencies in the law is a secondary but important value gleaned from bringing tough cases. The DOJ and FTC have made it their prerogative. We can't begin to fix flawed laws without understanding those flaws. @neil_chilson : FTC had been trumpeting its court loss as a win. But a Friday afternoon news dump with no press release?! Not “actually this is a win” behavior. What's your take, @dmccabe? Lee Hepner / @leehepner : Those are victories that will be helpful as the FTC continues its challenge of the Microsoft/Activision merger. As DOJ challenges Adove/Figma. As the FTC pursues its broader case to break up Meta's social media dominance. Adam Kovacevich / @adamkovac : FTC sees the writing on the wall and scraps the Within challenge. @leah_nylen did they announce a commissioner vote count on this? https://www.bloomberg.com/... Lee Hepner / @leehepner : As an aside, I think the Court flubbed this case on the facts. How can a company that has invested $36 billion in FTC in the past 4 years not be deemed capable of developing a mere fitness app? It's a galling conclusion and arguably an abuse of discretion. Alas. Lee Hepner / @leehepner : The FTC just announced the end of its administrative challenge to Meta's acquisition of Within. This marks the end of one chapter in a larger push by federal agencies to challenge Big Tech's dominance. https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/... Lee Hepner / @leehepner : Earlier this month, a federal court handed a narrow win to Meta which reaffirmed legal theories the FTC had pursued. Yes, potential competition theory lives. Yes, submarkets are relevant for assessing competitive effects. No, Big Tech can't game its way out of merger scrutiny. @neil_chilson : The FTC just dropped its ill-fated administrative complaint against the Meta-Within merger. Hell of a winning week for good policy! https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/... Lee Hepner / @leehepner : But the case also exposed the weakness of potential competition theory as a challenge to Big Tech dominance. I had great conversations about this case with Prof Darren Bush at @UHLAW who wrote a prescient piece on this just a few years ago. Worth a read. https://papers.ssrn.com/... https://twitter.com/...