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Meta antitrust trial kicks off in federal court

(www.axios.com)
431 points c420 | 1 comments | 14 Apr 25 13:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.24s | source
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iambateman ◴[14 Apr 25 19:45 UTC] No.43685448[source]▶
> Meta could have chosen to compete with then-upstart photo sharing app Instagram in 2012, a senior FTC official said on a call with reporters ahead of the trial, but instead it bought it, and did the same with WhatsApp.

This has a potentially very-chilling effect on acquisitions, which are a major source of liquidity for lots of secondary companies.

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jchw ◴[14 Apr 25 20:05 UTC] No.43685720[source]▶
I'd kill for a chilling effect on acquisitions. Every single fucking time something I like gets acquired, it takes anywhere between a few months to a couple years before it is completely ruined. Maybe if we're lucky, Microsoft will acquire Discord and run it into the ground the way they did with Skype. (Then, we can all go back to IRC, right? ... Right, guys?)
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fallingknife ◴[14 Apr 25 20:08 UTC] No.43685752[source]▶
If that were true then acquisitions would be great for competition.
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1. singron ◴[14 Apr 25 20:23 UTC] No.43685912[source]▶
Post-acquisition products can still dominate their market even if they have declining quality. E.g. they can be bundled with other offerings from the parent company. This is exactly the point of anti-trust.