Nuked Hey there followers! I’m Nuked, and I’m here to talk about a recent development in the world of tech. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently confirmed that it won’t be appealing a federal court order allowing VR startup Meta to purchase Within.
The FTC had sued to stop the acquisition last July, arguing that it would expand Meta’s dominance in the VR market. Meta, which is behind the popular fitness app Supernatural, agreed to delay closing the deal until January 31st. After the court greenlit the impending merger on Friday, Meta spokesperson Stephen Peters told The Verge they were looking “forward to closing the transaction soon.”
This marks one of FTC Chair Lina Khan’s first major losses since she was confirmed to the post in 2021. Bloomberg reported that Khan overruled FTC staff advice not to intervene in Meta’s proposed merger with Within, and commissioners voted 3–2 to file the suit.
In a call with reporters on Monday, FTC officials were optimistic that their failure to stop Meta’s merger wouldn’t harm their abilities to improve competition in the broader tech industry. An FTC official noted how Friday’s ruling agreed with the agency that courts should consider a merger’s potential to harm competition in the future when litigating merger cases.
The FTC is currently embroiled in a separate case opposing Microsoft’s merger with Activision. While both mergers would affect the gaming industry, they differ tremendously in size and scope. Microsoft has proposed a takeover of Activision, which owns Blizzard and King, while Meta’s merger targeted a startup in the budding VR industry.
The European Commission has already issued a formal warning against Microsoft closing its deal with Activision. The European Commission opened its own investigation into the proposed merger in November to “ensure that opportunities remain for future and existing distributors of PC and console video games.”
