Federal Judge Gives Meta Approval To Acquire Virtual Reality Company

JAKARTA - A federal judge in the United States has reportedly given approval to tech giant Meta to continue acquiring a virtual reality company.

According to a February 1 report from Bloomberg, Judge Edward Davila in the US District Court for the Northern District of California overruled the ruling by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, as part of an effort to block Meta from buying VR companies in the business. However, he also issued a temporary restraining order preventing Meta from closing the deal for at least a week.

The ruling forms part of a lawsuit filed by the FTC against Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in July 2022 in an effort to block the tech company from "its ultimate goal of owning the entire 'metaverse'".

Meta has been planning to buy Within and the Supernatural app, supposedly to eliminate potential threats to its metaverse plans.

Prior to its rebranding to Meta, Facebook faced FTC complaints for similar "anti-competitive behavior" in 2020 over its acquisitions of WhatsApp in 2014 and Instagram in 2012 for allegedly stifling innovation by buying competition.

The messaging and photo-sharing app has become a potential challenger to Facebook's Messenger app and the social media site.

If successful in its legal efforts, Meta will likely be able to acquire smaller companies offering metaverse related products or services and have them operate under its umbrella, not as competitors. The FTC reportedly has a week to appeal Judge Davila's decision.

Zuckerberg said in a November interview that Meta was "squeezing" doubts about its metaverse ambitions. The company reported a loss of USD 3.67 billion (IDR 55.4 trillion) for the third quarter of 2022, with expectations that this figure will increase in 2023. Meta earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2022 will be released on Februari 1.