Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently attempted to resolve a major antitrust lawsuit by offering the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a $450 million settlement but the bid was swiftly declined, according to reports. The FTC reportedly countered with expectations in the tens of billions, with an initial ask of at least $30 billion, tied to the massive influence of Meta’s acquisitions: Instagram and WhatsApp.
Insiders say Zuckerberg personally reached out to the FTC chair, suggesting that former President Donald Trump would support Meta’s position. While Trump and Zuckerberg have had a turbulent history, relations have reportedly improved after Meta settled a prior $25 million lawsuit and shifted on key policies.
Despite a follow-up offer of $1 billion, the FTC remained unmoved, allegedly seeking closer to $18 billion. Meta, valued at around $1.3 trillion, appears determined to avoid a court battle but is now fully engaged in one of the most consequential antitrust trials in tech history.
During court proceedings, FTC lawyers questioned Zuckerberg on why Meta chose to acquire Instagram rather than develop a competing app. “I’m sure we could have built an app,” he said. “Whether it would have succeeded or not is a matter of speculation.”
An old 2012 email from Zuckerberg to then-COO Sheryl Sandberg was also brought up, in which he wrote: “Instagram is growing so much faster than us that we had to buy them for $1 billion.” He also expressed concerns that Facebook Messenger wasn’t outperforming WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg defended Meta’s acquisition strategy, stating the company had repeatedly tried building apps from scratch, but those efforts didn’t always gain traction. The FTC, however, views Meta’s pattern of buying rather than building as evidence of anti-competitive behavior reinforcing its claim that Meta dominates the social media market.
Meta, for its part, continues to argue that it faces strong competition from platforms like TikTok, Snap, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.
The question of potential political intervention still lingers. Asked whether Trump could step in, former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who initiated the case under the Biden administration, warned that this remains “a constant worry that we all need to stay very vigilant about.”
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