Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, hoped to avoid a high-stakes antitrust trial this week in Washington, D.C., but he wasn't willing to pay the price the US antitrust cops wanted.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, he and the Federal Trade Commission on what it would take to resolve a case that seeks to fracture Zuckerberg's business empire.
In March, Zuckerberg offered the head of the FTC $450 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, well short of the $30 billion demanded by the FTC. He eventually increased it to $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, but FTC boss Andrew Ferguson wouldn't accept anything lower than $18 billion.
The recent revelations concerning Zuckerberg's negotiations with the Trump administration add a dramatic twist to the legal struggle between the social media giant and the FTC.
The FTC argues that Meta has created a monopoly in the "personal social networking" arena by acquiring potential competitors such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta's Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. Although the FTC initially reviewed and approved these transactions, but now wants a judge to force Meta to divest both of them.
Before the trial, Zuckerberg and his top team visited the White House on multiple occasions to meet with President Trump and various administration officials. He also made two visits to the president's Mar-a-Lago club. In addition, Meta contributed $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
During this week's court proceedings, the FTC quickly presented its case against Zuckerberg, starting with the CEO as its initial witness. The primary focus was on Instagram, as prosecutors challenged Zuckerberg with emails from his past.
"We haven't been shy about explaining why it doesn't make sense for the FTC to bring a case to trial that requires it to prove something every 17-year-old in America knows is absurd — that Instagram doesn’t compete with TikTok," a Meta spokesperson said. "We are prepared to win at trial."