In antitrust order, judge says Meta’s mkt share falling

Meta Platforms scored a major victory in federal antitrust court on Tuesday when a judge concluded that the company doesn’t need to unravel its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, because it’s not a monopoly.

- Bloomberg

But the judge’s reasoning may sting.

Judge James Boasberg on Tuesday sided with Meta, saying it can remain intact because its market share is already declining, Even if Meta is growing, so is the universe of options for spending time online, and Meta is looking more and more like its competitors, he wrote.

‘A collection of changes over the past decade - from better technology and AI to changes in societal norms - have helped erode Meta's distinct advantages, he wrote. “Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have thus evolved to have nearly identical main features,” Boasberg said. Meta's most popular features are “indistinguishable from the offerings on TikTok and YouTube.”