The Facebook parent company was able to win an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by the FTC.
When Meta recently won an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the judge required the company to wait a week before closing its acquisition deal of virtual reality company Within Unlimited.
The FTC’s lawsuit sought to stop Meta from being able to purchase Within Unlimited.
Meta’s efforts to purchase the virtual reality company best known for its Supernatural fitness application were delayed by over a year as it sought to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals and make its way through the lawsuit from the FTC. Last week, as reported by QR Code Press, the judge ruled in favor of Meta, but delayed the company from acquiring Within by another week in order to provide the FTC with enough opportunity to decide if it intended to pursue the case further.
After the week had passed, Meta officially closed the acquisition deal. At that time, the specific financial terms of the deal had not been disclosed.
The lawsuit from the FTC against Meta was filed in July 2022 specifically to stop the Facebook parent company from being able to purchase Within. The FTC alleged that this purchase would be anticompetitive.
Meta has a track record for snapping up virtual reality tech to support its massive metaverse bet.
Meta has been spending billions on metaverse and has purchased several companies along the way, including Beat Saber’s studio, Beat Games, as well as Oculus, the company behind the VR hardware Meta is using.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in the trial, and the judge who presided over it ruled that Meta could proceed with the purchase.
Meta’s victory arrived on the heels of announcing that it would be slashing its workforce by 13 percent. Earlier this month, it also revealed in its earnings report that it lost $13.7 billion on augmented reality and virtual reality in 2022. The company’s division for AR and VR, Reality Labs, generated only $2.16 billion last year. It has also announced that this year will be a time with a focus on efficiency and strengthening the services it already provides, focusing comparatively less on future tech such as the metaverse.
