“It’s a combination of neutralizing a competitor and improving Facebook”, Zuckerberg replied. In one of the 2012 messages, then-Facebook CFO David Ebersman asked Zuckerberg whether the potential purchase of Instagram was about neutralizing a competitor, acquiring talent or integrating products to improve Facebook. The messages eventually spilled into public view during a 2019 congressional hearing on tech antitrust concerns. That’s despite explosive internal messages that the feds had seized prior to the interview and used to confront Zuckerberg, the sources said.
Instead, Zuckerberg insisted in the interview that he wanted to buy Instagram to help Facebook fetch a better valuation in its initial public offering, which was to occur three months later, sources said. In the interview, sources said Zuckerberg denied that he had viewed Instagram as a competitor - a crucial point as regulators reviewed concerns that Facebook was building a monopoly in the social-networking space. The Instagram purchase served primarily to bolster Facebook’s IPO in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg maintains. That’s because it bolsters the argument that the feds already thoroughly reviewed the tie-up when it was proposed, and are now improperly trying to relitigate the case. The fact that the interview took place could throw a wrench into the new antitrust case brought against Facebook by hard-charging FTC Chair Lina Khan, who is looking to unwind the tech giant’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, legal experts say. Despite regulators’ concerns over the tie-up, Zuckerberg wasn’t formally deposed and the FTC dropped its case roughly three months later. The Federal Trade Commission secretly interviewed Mark Zuckerberg while probing Facebook’s 2012 acquisition of Instagram - grilling the tech tycoon over the social network’s motives in the controversial deal, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told The Post.įacebook’s chief executive had agreed voluntarily to speak with the feds in the 2012 interview, which hasn’t previously been reported, according to sources close to the situation. Ingenious test can prove if Facebook secretly listens to your conversations Lush vows to stay off social media until platforms become ‘safer’
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