During Meta’s antitrust trial this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Snapchat could have experienced faster growth had it accepted an acquisition offer from his company back in 2013, according to Business Insider.
Court documents revealed that Meta — known as Facebook at the time — had offered to buy Snapchat for $6 billion, although earlier reports mentioned a $3 billion offer. In response to questions from a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attorney, Zuckerberg expressed that Snapchat hadn’t grown to its full potential and that Meta could have helped improve the app’s performance.
“I believe that if we had acquired them, their growth would’ve been faster. But that’s just my opinion,” Zuckerberg testified.
The government highlighted this failed acquisition as part of its argument that Meta tends to maintain its dominance in the social media space by purchasing rivals rather than competing with them directly.
The FTC is currently seeking to force Meta to restructure or even sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. They argue that Meta spent billions to acquire those apps in an effort to eliminate Facebook’s competitors and create an unlawful monopoly.
