Facebook became the fifth US company to hit a significant milestone - $1 trillion in market capitalization. It joined Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. The company's shares went up after a favourable legal ruling that dismissed an antitrust complaint brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and multiple state attorneys general.
On Monday, a federal court dismissed the antitrust complaint against Facebook, as well as a parallel case, which could have resulted in Facebook divesting Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC sued Facebook in December 2020 and attorneys general from 48 states, arguing that the California-based company engaged in a systematic strategy to eliminate threats to its monopoly. The lawsuit mentioned the 2012 and 2014 acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively. However, the court ruled that the FTC failed to prove its main contention and the cornerstone of the case.
Regarding the general attorneys' case, the court completely dismissed it, saying that the long delay between the acquisitions and the 2020 case filing was unprecedented on a state level.
Following the court outcome, Facebook stock price closed up 4.2% at $355.64 apiece.
Sources: cnbc.com, theverge.com
