Zuckerberg was sued in July over Meta\u2019s proposed acquisition of Within Unlimited Gulf News
\nTLTP
\nNEW YORK
\nThe US Federal Trade Commission will continue to pursue a case personally against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the acquisition of a virtual reality app, a lawyer for the agency told the FTC\u2019s in-house judge.
\nForeign media reported that the agency has asked its in-house court to force both Meta and Zuckerberg to seek approval from the FTC before engaging in any future deals. The trial has been set for January 19.
\nThe agency sued Meta and Zuckerberg in July over the company\u2019s proposed acquisition of Within Unlimited, the maker of the popular virtual reality fitness app Supernatural. The case is playing out in two parallel venues: A California federal court has scheduled a six-day hearing in December to decide whether to stay the deal while the FTC pursues its case before the agency\u2019s in-house judge.
\nDuring the hearing two days ago in the in-house court, FTC Attorney Abby Dennis said the agency agreed to dismiss Zuckerberg from the federal case, but not the internal proceeding because it wants a broader legal remedy. The in-house complaint would block the Within deal as well as require Meta and Zuckerberg to provide advance notice and seek approval from the FTC for future mergers or acquisitions.
\nUnder US merger law, Meta only needs to notify the FTC and its sister agency, the Justice Department, when a deal is valued at $101 million or more.
\nA 2020 House probe into Facebook found the company acquired nearly 100 companies in the previous decade, only one of which was subject to an in-depth FTC review. The FTC\u2019s own study into acquisitions by Facebook and the four other large tech platforms found they bought or invested in more than 800 small companies that didn\u2019t require merger notification or review.
\nMeta\u2019s lawyer, Mark Hansen, said the company intends to ask the FTC to dismiss Zuckerberg from the internal agency proceedings. The company has also declined to offer a settlement to the FTC, he said. \u201cWe believe the merger should be allowed and should go forward,\u201d Hansen said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zuckerberg was sued in July over Meta\u2019s proposed acquisition of Within Unlimited Gulf News TLTP NEW YORK The US Federal Trade Commission will continue to pursue a case personally against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the acquisition of a virtual reality app, a lawyer for the agency told the FTC\u2019s in-house judge. Foreign media reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n