FTC Files To Block Meta's Virtual Reality Deal

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday filed for an injunction to block Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, from buying a virtual reality company called Within, limiting the company's push into the so-called metaverse and signaling a shift in how the agency is approaching tech deals. From a report: The antitrust lawsuit is the first to be filed under Lina Khan, the commission's chair and a leading progressive critic of corporate concentration, against one of the tech giants. Ms. Khan has argued that regulators must stop violations of competition and consumer protection laws when it comes to the bleeding edge of technology, including virtual and augmented reality, and not just in areas of business where companies have already become behemoths. "Meta could have chosen to try to compete," the F.T.C. said in its lawsuit. "Instead, it chose to buy" a top company in what the government called a 'vitally important' category.

Good!

[Sebby]

Wednesday filed for an injunction to block Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook

I'm glad Facebook changed its name to "Meta": because it better describes them - it's short for "Metastasize"; totally fitting.

Re:Good!

[Opportunist]

This is even funnier in German because "Stasi" was the nickname of the GDR's internal surveillance service ("Bundesministerium für Staatssicherheit") that spent most of its resources on spying on their own citizens. So calling it "Meta-Stasi" is just ... fitting.

vitally important

[raymorris]

I remember being excited when I got my first VR headset.
I won at at tech conference. That would have been in 2000 or 2001. VR was the next thing, super exciting. I used it for all of maybe 15 minutes. 7 of those minutes were watching porn.

If she thinks she wants to block Meta aka Facebook from buying a small company, fine. "Vitally important?". Those trying to sell VR have been hyping it as "the next big thing" for about 25 years, and it still aint nothing. It's a gaming accessory.

Re:

[RitchCraft]

"It's a gaming accessory." - And not a very good one at that.

Re:

[GoTeam]

I found the "Vitally important" comment to be worrisome. If VR tech is vitally important to the US, then society is over. Let's just disband into warring tribes and wait 100 years before trying society again...

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

Its important cause it is the only way that tech companies can really get any bigger.
Eventually the tech companies are going to run out of places to put ads, then the economy will collapse since it seems like it is a house of cards built of dreams of infinite money growth.

Re:

[Noobsa44]

Vitally important in another way-- Facebook (the app) has been blocked from collecting as much data as it once did by Apple. Meta concluded that Facebook could not survive without owning the hardware/ecosystem. Phones are closed while PCs are open, Meta concluded that the best way to win the hardware wars was to bypass phones and go to the next logical step--living in the internet rather than living next to it via a phone.

So the vital importance is for Meta to be able to control the hardware to control th

Re: vitally important

[flyingfsck]

Disband into warring tribes - the US already did that.

Re:

[Growlley]

You already did - repubs and democrats . You just skipped the civilised part for the last 200 years.

Re:

[SuperDre]

if you think VR is just a gaming accessory you haven't used any of the new headsets. It's way WAAAAAAAAY more advanced as the ones released in 2000 or 1995. And it certainly is a great tool for design, and also virtual meetings are way better than any chat/audio/zoom meeting. Current headsets already are at a level of the first smartphones with real touchscreens, compared to the dumb phones (the 2000 vr glasses) with which you could only text or play very simple monochrome games on.

Re:

[raymorris]

> you haven't used any of the new headsets.

And neither has most anyone else, because nobody cares to strap their monitor to their friggin face. :)

Re: vitally important

[flyingfsck]

OK Zuk.

That's OK

[JBMcB]

Tencent will buy them. That will be fine.

Will this kill VC funding for marginal startups?

[Hadlock]

There are three ways to "exit" as a startup

1. IPO
2. get acquired
3. go bankrupt

Getting aquired is 50% of the options for a sorta-successful company, the other is IPO, and that can be a huge hurdle. I'm curious what kind of chilling effect this ruling has on VC funding for smaller startups where the obvious exit is acquisition? Yikes. This is not a good sign of things to come for tech startups and their primary source of funding. VCs are going to be even more risk adverse when it comes to doling out f

Re:

[sjritt00]

Might I suggest a fourth option?

4. Develop your startup into a fully functional, successful business. In other words, exit from "startup" to "grown up".
This option was popular for centuries.

Re:

[Opportunist]

That sounds awfully like work. Can't Facebook just buy my startup for a billion?

Re:

[Midnight_Falcon]

You forgot about 4 which is a mix of 1) and 2), go public via a SPAC. Smaller companies that can't go public themselves have frequently gone to the SPAC option. However, it's a space fraught with nonsense and most SPACs have performed terribly for investors.

There's also option 5) Have a sustainable privately-held business, which is more rare but definitely happens. VC doesn't like that because they don't get big returns so they will push their founders away from this option.

Hypocrites

[SuperDre]

And now it will probably be swooped up by another company like Apple. So why should Meta try to compete with it, but another company can just buy it? that just doesn't make sense. I wouldn't be surprised if another company like Apple would buy it now , with them actually being the ones who suggested to the FTC to block they buyout so they can buy it.

Virtue signalling

[groobly]

This FTC action is nothing more than virtue signalling by the new left-wing ("progressive") chairthing. It's just to show they can spit in the eye of Facebook. It accomplishes nothing, because Facebook's entry into VR is irrelevant.

The value of VR will be in things like industrial work or training, or various other kinds of augmented reality such as military applications, not in taking Soma holidays on Facebook.