FOLLOWING THE NEWS, FACEBOOK’S MARKET VALUE EXCEEDED $1 TRILLION FOR THE FIRST TIME

 

Karimi & Associates Law Firm presents according to CNN:

Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court of Columbia held that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish that Facebook (FB) has monopoly power in the market for Personal Social Networking (PSN) Services.

Boasberg held that the FTC did not do enough to back up its assertion that Facebook holds a “60%-plus” share of the social media market.

Facebook’s stock ended Monday up more than 4% following the news, pushing the company’s market value above $1 trillion for the first time.

The FTC had alleged that Facebook violated the nation’s anti-monopoly laws by acquiring nascent startups like Instagram that is perceived as a threat to its dominance, and by preventing others from plugging into Facebook’s services.

The decision is a setback for antitrust regulators who had asked for a breakup of the company. But while the judge dismissed the FTC’s complaint, he declined to dismiss the case overall, saying the issues with the FTC’s lawsuit could be addressed if the agency filed an amended complaint.

Last week, the committee advanced a package of landmark bills that would empower antitrust regulators at the FTC and the Justice Department to break up Big Tech platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.

Critics of Facebook, including House lawmakers in a groundbreaking report last summer, had accused Facebook of targeting small startups such as Instagram early on in those companies’ lifecycles, believing they were a threat to Facebook’s power. That so-called “buy-or-bury” strategy allegedly helped Facebook maintain its status as a top-tier social networking company.