During testimony at Meta’s ongoing antitrust trial, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Snapchat would have expanded more rapidly if it had accepted Meta’s acquisition proposal in 2013. At the time, Meta—then still named Facebook—made an offer to purchase Snapchat for $6 billion, although contemporary reports had mistakenly cited a lower figure of $3 billion.
Responding to questions from an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, Zuckerberg said Snapchat “wasn’t growing at the potential that it could” and indicated that under Meta’s ownership, the app’s growth could have been accelerated. “For what it’s worth, I think if we would have bought them, we would have accelerated their growth, but that’s just speculation,” he testified.
The FTC brought up the unsuccessful acquisition attempt as part of its broader argument against Meta, which contends that the company’s strategy of acquiring potential rivals has eliminated competition and allowed it to dominate social media markets unlawfully. The agency is pressing for Meta to restructure or divest itself of Instagram and WhatsApp, asserting that these acquisitions were motivated primarily by a desire to suppress competitive threats rather than through organic growth.
