Zuckerberg tells court he made WhatsApp and Instagram better
1 min read
Summary
At the end of his testimony in court, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, smiled as he remarked that he would make the same huge payments for WhatsApp and Instagram again, even though they were for far more than the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has alleged he intended, to consolidate his company’s power.
The FTC is seeking to unwind Meta’s acquisition of the two companies in an antitrust lawsuit, arguing that Zuckerberg had sought to avoid competition.
WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and Instagram’s Kevin Systrom all left Meta shortly after their companies’ acquisitions, which the FTC contends was due to a failure to align with Zuckerberg’s objectives for the apps.
However, Zuckerberg argues that he was not interested in integrating the apps with Facebook at first, and only sought to do so later when they began to gain significant traction.
He also highlighted the record numbers of users and revenues that WhatsApp and Instagram have amassed since their acquisitions.