- Have any questions?
- 02 9247 6000
- media@commsroom.co
- Have any questions?
- 02 9247 6000
- media@commsroom.co
Menu
According to The New York Times, Facebook parent Meta will be allowed to purchase Within Unlimited, the company behind the virtual reality workout program Supernatural.
This was after District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California denied the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s request for an injunction blocking the proposed merger between Meta and Within Unlimited.
The FTC argued that Meta was using the deal “to buy its way to the top,” rather than compete on its own merits, Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman said in a statement at the time of the agency’s filing of lawsuit in July 2022.
As a result of “the mere possibility [that] Meta’s entry has likely influenced competition” in the market, the agency—which is also fighting Meta in a separate monopolisation case—claimed that if the business were permitted to purchase the startup, the market for VR-specific fitness apps would suffer.
FTC’s progressive Chair Lina Khan’s goal of pursuing lawsuits that test the limits of antitrust law was realised with this litigation.
Read also: Telstra adds 400Gbps backbone links between Sydney and Melbourne (commsroom.co)
Khan advised the FTC to be “forward-looking” in its enforcement actions and pay particular attention to “next-generation technologies, innovations, and nascent industries across sectors” in a memo to agency staff written in 2021.
The ruling was still sealed as of Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the situation as quoted in the Times report.
The FTC still has the option to challenge the ruling and pursue an internal administrative investigation into the merger.
To give itself time to plan its next move, FTC filed an emergency motion on Tuesday, requesting that Meta not consummate the merger for another week.
According to The Times, the judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Meta from finalising the deal during that time.
A Meta spokesperson said in response to FTC that its case is “based on ideology and speculation, not evidence. The idea that this acquisition would lead to anticompetitive outcomes in a dynamic space with as much entry and growth as online and connected fitness is simply not credible.”
You may also want to read: Microsoft intends to update Bing with a quicker version of ChatGPT (commsroom.co)
Source: CNBC
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
