Meta's Antitrust Win Is Also a Warning for Investors

Watch Meta's Antitrust Win Is Also a Warning for Investors - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Meta has secured a key legal victory against the Federal Trade Commission.

00:04The FTC alleged the company's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp violated antitrust law.

00:11The judge didn't agree.

00:12Bloomberg's Riley Griffin joins us with the details.

00:15I think let's start with the basic legal reasoning that the judge gave.

00:19What was the decision based on and what happened?

00:22Well, Ed, you have to remember that when the FTC first launched this lawsuit,

00:26that was five years ago.

00:27That was Trump 1.0.

00:29The social media landscape has changed drastically since then.

00:33And that was really the reasoning behind his ruling.

00:36The FTC had argued that MeWe and Snap were its only competitors.

00:41And you and I have spoken plenty of times about what TikTok is doing to Meta's market share.

00:45That's what Judge Boesberg said as well.

00:48And then Meta gets up and says,

00:50See, we have got so much competition.

00:53It's fierce out there.

00:54We continue to tackle it.

00:55But it's an interesting sort of argument to have to make to your investor base,

01:00your employees, that you are under threat in some way.

01:03That's such an important point, Caroline, because really this win is also a warning.

01:08Looking forward, Meta is going to have to grapple with Judge Boesberg's comments,

01:13which are that it is not differentiated from its competitors and that TikTok is eroding its market share.

01:18This is probably the most difficult question, but what happens next?

01:22Is that just it now?

01:23It's all done or there are some changes that Meta has to make or there will be more legal challenges down the road?

01:28So we've been speaking with analysts.

01:30Nobody expects the appeal process to proceed, but we're going to wait and see.

01:35Really, this means that Meta doesn't have to spin off Instagram or WhatsApp.

01:39That was the overhanging threat.

01:40But a big win, one that was really priced in.

01:44Analysts had expected Meta to take the W here.