|
In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg floated the idea of spinning out Instagram, one of the remedies the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will likely seek in Meta's antitrust trial that began this week. CNBC reported on Tuesday that the comments from an email thread with executives came to light in Washington, DC.
"I'm beginning to wonder whether spinning Instagram out is the only structure that will accomplish a number of important goals," Zuckerberg wrote in the email. "As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway." His estimate, made six years ago, ended up being spot-on.
"On the flip side, while most companies resist breakups, the corporate history is that most companies actually perform better after they've been split up," Zuckerberg added in the same email, according to The New York Times.
It's Zuckerberg's second day of testimony in the trial, which stemmed from a 2020 government lawsuit against Meta (then still known as Facebook). The FTC argues that the company's purchases of Instagram (for $1 billion in 2012) and WhatsApp (for $19 billion in 2014) hurt competition. If the trial goes th
|
|
The Meta chief executive, testifying in a landmark antitrust trial, denied he was trying to snuff out competitors.
|
|
Meta's antitrust trial, in which the government contends the company killed competition by buying young rivals, hinges on unknowable alternate versions of Silicon Valley history.
|
|
