Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) claims that in order to defend itself against the federal government, it wants its competitors to reveal some of its most tightly guarded secrets. Facebook’s The parent company of Facebook, Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has so far subpoenaed 132 companies for documents, including Snap Inc. (NYSE:SNAP), ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and the audio startup Clubhouse, and has warned that it may seek information from 100 more. The subpoenas have set off a cascade of legal challenges from Meta’s rivals, which accuse the company of using antitrust litigation as an excuse to dig through their confidential data.
Meta Platforms Inc. (META) performed inched down in pre trading session on Wednesday (14-Sep-22), shares drop 9.37% with trading volume of 44.44 million shares in last trading session. The stock settled at $153.13 after floating in a range of $152.67 to $161.63.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has subpoenaed 132 firms for papers, including Snap Inc., ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, and the audio startup Clubhouse, and has warned that it may seek material from 100 more. The subpoenas have triggered a chain reaction of legal challenges from Meta’s competitors, who accuse the corporation of using antitrust lawsuits to pry into their sensitive data.
The US Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Meta in 2020, arguing that the corporation monopolized the social networking market in part through its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta denies having a monopoly and claims that the industry is continually developing, citing newcomers TikTok and Clubhouse as examples.
A trial is unlikely until at least 2024, although both parties are gathering evidence for the case. Meta Platforms’ inquiries seek “huge volumes of competitively sensitive material,” according to Kellie Lerner, an antitrust lawyer at the law firm Robins Kaplan LLP who isn’t engaged in the litigation.
Lerner Said, who has litigated many antitrust disputes, “You have a company accused of anticompetitive conduct who is now seeking very competitively sensitive information in discovery. The sheer breadth of what they are trying to get through discovery is something that, in my view, is not typical.”
According to court filings, Meta has requested records pertaining to some of the most significant and sensitive aspects of how rivals do business, such as how they attract users, scale up businesses, and earn money from features. It also wants papers on competitors’ marketing and sales methods, quality measurements, contact information for their major advertisers, and information on their efforts to lure users away from competitors, among other things.
Meta representative Christopher Sgro, said, Meta fiercely competes with numerous firms to enable people share, connect, discuss, or simply be entertained. As a logical step in preparing our response to the FTC’s action, they served subpoenas on firms with which they compete or suspect has other material pertaining to the FTC’s accusations.
INSIDE FACTS: As firm has the market capitalization of $412.01B. The company has the price over sales value of $3.45 whereas its price over book value of $ 3.29 for the most recent quarter. META has the cash per share value of 15.05 as compares to total debt of $13.87 billion for the most recent year balance sheet with the current ratio of 2.50 for the most recent quarter.