Now another Meta acquisition in jeopardy: VR biz Within

The US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit Wednesday in an attempt to stop Facebook parent Meta from acquiring VR firm Within, claiming the deal could harm competition and consumers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – who is on a quest to build a metaverse of connected 3D virtual-reality worlds in which people work, shop, and …

[Pascal Monett]

Wait, can someone explain the difference ?

"VR dedicated fitness apps and [..] VR fitness apps"

What is this waffling ? So, there are fitness apps, and there are dedicated fitness apps ?

I'm supposed to understand that there are fitness apps that also serve as calculators, or what ?

Look, I'm all for tying El Zuck's hands behind his back, but as far as I know, a fitness app is dedicated to fitness. This supposed distinction just serves the wordcount.

[iron]

Re: Wait, can someone explain the difference ?

Wii Sports could be considered as fitness app but not a dedicated fitness app because its really a game.

[Pascal Monett]

"the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

No. The FTC is sending you a chilling message.

Don't confuse yourself with the entire market. VR companies are entirely allowed to spring up and thrive. It's just that you are not going to be allowed to swallow all of them up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

I think this is a capitalist/financier perspective. To Meta, when they say "innovate" they mean "give money to small companies".

In recent history, a lot of funding for startups came from Venture Capital, where the "out" was not profitability and dividends, but for the startup to be bought by a large tech company. So I assume the thinking is that fewer big innovative ideas will make it to fruition when the startups have to plan to stand on their own revenue in the long-term.

[iain666]

Re: "the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

Or more will, since the big tech companies buy the little guys to kill them off at least as often as they buy them to put more investment into building on their innovation.

[iron]

I would say Facebook is the one sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR.

Don't work in VR, your employer might get bought by Facebook! Then you will face the moral choce of qitting or selling your soul to Zuck.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or a competitor might get bought by Meta, which then inevitably uses its advertising revenue to subsidise that competitor's products/services to sell at a loss, undercutting any independent competition - such as yourself - and driving them out of business.

[Charlie Clark]

Wouldn't worry too much yet but the excuses are interesting

Facebook can be compared fairly directly with other advertising-based businesses such as Google. But these were flat even though they depend even more on pervasive advertising. Investing in other areas is a well-established strategy in the search for new markets as the main ones become saturated. I guess the worry is that VR is based around yet more advertising as opposed, for example, Google's forays into cloud and medical services.

No doubt pressure to integrate the various services and particularly to make money from WhatsApp will grow. Thus far Facebook has failed to demonstrate much ability to innovate across its platforms. Both Instagram and WhatsApp were bought in and, while Instagram has been a success, the strategy for WhatsApp remains unclear.

[imanidiot]

Re: Wouldn't worry too much yet but the excuses are interesting

Facebook is dying. It's already "uncool" with a lot of the youth it seems and I'm hearing more and more people who are getting disenchanted by it or cutting back their time on FB and FB products.

WhatsApp was just a bad buy for Facebook. The intention seems to have been to basically either make it Facebook Messenger or integrate it into the Facebook functionality to the degree that people would stop using it over FBM and FB apps and at some point basically just transforming all Whatsapp accounts into a FB accounts. They weren't counting on the EU and others actually enforcing the rules and regulations set at the takeover limiting what they could do with the company and the regulations preventing them from transferring user data to FB unless the user opted in made it even harder (Which they partially circumvented with a "you opt-in if you don't uncheck this box before date X" that they did their very best NOT to draw too much attention to.)

[fxkeh]

"the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

I must have missed when "innovation" was redefined to mean "spending millions to buy up smaller companies", rather than, you know, actual innovative research, or design, or products.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "the FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

Approximately the same year the the United States granted corporations "personhood" without being able to jail or execute them...

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't build must buy

“Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman.

Glad to see the FTC growing some teeth.

[Anonymous Coward]

So once again Meta basically claims that their critics are full of it without presenting any evidence to the contrary.

Personally, I think every Meta acquisition going forward should be blocked, and the same goes for Google, Microsoft, IBM, and every other tech magnate. Purchase by any of them has become a black hole of technology loss for society between paywalled doors. Enough is enough - how much of the digital landscape are we going to allow American industries to steal from the world?

[iain666]

"FTC is sending a chilling message to anyone who wishes to innovate in VR"

Build something good enough to stand on its own two feet, not something that kind of looks like it might maybe get there sometime soon and wait for Meta to buy you out so you can take the money and run.

That's not a chilling message that's encouraging innovation done right rather than half baked.