Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified during this week’s antitrust trial that Snapchat would have achieved faster growth had it accepted his company’s $6 billion acquisition offer back in 2013, as Business Insider reports.
A Multi-Billion Dollar “What If”
Newly surfaced court documents confirm that Meta—operating as Facebook at the time—attempted to purchase Snapchat for $6 billion, a figure significantly higher than the $3 billion reported in earlier media cycles. When pressed by an FTC attorney regarding the failed deal, Zuckerberg argued that Snapchat’s trajectory was hindered by its independence, stating he believed the platform “wasn’t growing at the potential that it could.”
Zuckerberg’s Vision for Snapchat
The Meta executive maintained that his company possessed the resources and infrastructure to significantly improve the app’s performance. “For what it’s worth, I think if we would have bought them, we would have accelerated their growth, but that’s just speculation,” Zuckerberg testified on the stand.
Antitrust Implications and FTC Strategy
Government prosecutors introduced the failed acquisition attempt as a key piece of evidence in their ongoing case against Meta. The strategy aims to demonstrate that Meta secures its dominance in the social media market by absorbing potential rivals through massive acquisitions rather than engaging in organic, direct competition.
The Future of Meta’s Empire
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently seeking to force a structural overhaul of Meta, which could include the divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp. The government contends that the company utilized its vast capital to acquire these platforms specifically to neutralize competitive threats, thereby establishing an illegal monopoly that stifles market innovation.
