The American regulator FTC ultimately allows the acquisition of Within by Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms. The watchdog had previously tried to stop the acquisition through a lawsuit. However, the FTC lost that one.
So now the watchdog also excludes further legal actions.
The acquisition of the start-up Within, which makes a fitness app that works with virtual reality, was already announced by Meta at the end of 2021. But the FTC, led by Joe Biden appointee Lina Khan, also did not want to pass up the purchase of a small start-up. The watchdog states that such small purchases can also potentially restrict competition.
The court determined that the FTC did not provide enough evidence that this was the case in this case. But according to the government body, the judge did confirm the legal basis of the case in his ruling.
The ruling officially allowed Meta to complete Within’s acquisition early this month. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is fully committed to virtual reality because CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks that in the future, we will all do business in a virtual world, the metaverse. The FTC could have demanded that the purchase be reversed through a new case.
