'It's time for him to go buy the Within company, it's time.'
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Meta Platforms Inc, Mark Zuckerberg was ordered to testify in court regarding the issue of monopolizing the virtual reality (VR) industry.
It is understood that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed documents in the Northern District Court of the United States (US), California to request 18 witnesses including Zuckerberg to testify.
As a context, Meta has agreed to an agreement to buy a VR content creator company, Within, in October 2021.
The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed, but in July, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Meta alleging it increased the risk of an 'attempted monopoly' of the VR market since Zuckerberg's company is in the same industry.
The FTC's argument at the time was that the agreement indicated it would 'significantly lessen competition and would create a monopoly'.
Meta later countered the charges with a court filing that said the FTC's allegations were conclusory, speculative and inconsistent with market-fixing facts.
Back to the original story, Within CEO Chris Milk and Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth were also called to testify about the acquisition.
Additionally, insiders say Zuckerberg will be asked to explain the Within acquisition in terms of their business strategy in the VR industry including support plans by 3rd party developers in court later.
