Facebook Antitrust Probes Will Target Acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram (cnet.com) 13
A group of state attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, is on track to file antitrust charges against Facebook in early December, according to a report Thursday from the Washington Post. CNET: The move comes as the US Federal Trade Commission is also reportedly finalizing its antitrust probe into the social media giant. State and federal investigators plan to bring antitrust charges against Facebook over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the deals "helped create an anti-competitive social networking juggernaut," according to the Post. Investigators may also reportedly argue that Facebook weaponized its vast trove of user data to help quash rivals.
My favorite Facebook competitor (Score:3)
Welcome the land of no $hit (Score:4, Funny)
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no $hit (Score:2)
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If you bring in the Oculus affair into the antitrust examination you have even more support.
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Misdirected inquiry (Score:2)
It's going to be hard to consider either acquisition an antitrust issue when the regulators of multiple governments including the USA's specifically approved these acquisitions. Sadly this probe is destined to fail.
The cynic in me wonders if this is a an AG who is simply trying to look tough but is purposely looking in places they are unlikely to find anything.
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Notably no-one is saying if you go over xx% market share - you WILL be broken up. Strange how in 1911 they got it
Because that's a silly assertion, it wasn't used in 1911 nor is it used today. If you create something new and unique right now you naturally have 100% market share. It's an extreme example but one that shows the world is more complicated than assigning a number to a company and then clamping down on them when they exceed said number.
Antitrust is not a matter of market share and nor are monopolies illegal. The question is what you do with them.
You're right with it being about where you start, but if you wan