Posted on 12/09/2020 4:07:12 PM PST by rarestia
On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a massive antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, claiming the social media giant has harmed competition by buying up smaller companies like Instagram and WhatsApp to squash the threat they posed to its business. Forty-seven other state and regional attorneys general are joining the suit.
The lawsuit centers on Facebook’s acquisitions, particularly its $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2011. In addition to its acquisition strategy, the attorneys general allege that Facebook used the power and reach of its platform to stifle user growth for competing services.
“For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition,” James said in a press conference today. “Facebook used vast amounts of money to acquire potential rivals before they could threaten the company’s dominance.”
The Federal Trade Commission brought a separate lawsuit against Facebook on similar grounds, announced at the same time as the states’ lawsuit. The FTC case goes further than the state case, explicitly calling on the court to unwind the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, spinning off both into independent companies.
“Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive,” said Ian Conner, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
Blame the Obama Justice Department which approved the merger
This suit ends January 20 under the Biden regime
Great, look into Googles acquisition of YouTube
It needs to unwind the merger and further integration. Get a Facebook ban and you lose a majority of mobile VOIP and text messaging choices. While there are others, not many people use them (Viber, Skype, IMO) as they are business oriented or niche.
They had to buy WhatsApp, it was obvious that WhatsApp was going to be very stiff competition for Facebook.
So they made them an offer so far above the actual value of the business that the owners could not pass it up...
They always do this, nowadays entrepreneurs factor into their plans the possibility of a buyout from Google, Amazon, Facebook, et al.
The purchase had an unusual start...
In Facebook Deal, Board Was All But Out of Picture
Negotiating mostly on his own, Mr. Zuckerberg had fielded Mr. Systrom’s opening number, $2 billion, and whittled it down over several meetings at Mr. Zuckerberg’s $7 million five-bedroom home in Palo Alto. Later that Sunday, the two 20-somethings would agree on a sale valued at $1 billion.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304818404577350191931921290
Zuckerberg reminds me of the obnoxious little snot in high school who got away with everything because his dad and the principal were both members of the same Masonic lodge. God, I hated guys like that.
Amen
Thanks for posting this.
My wife has enrolled in on line email news service to keep up with what is happening in our Northern California area.
She sent me a link shortly after noon about this, and basically nothing has been posted about it until now.
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