Facebook Inc., which on Monday surpassed the $1 trillion value threshold, is giving new meaning to the term Teflon-coated, as nothing appears to stick to it. With the news that it is escaping monopolistic activity charges in the United States, Facebook FB, +4.18 percent demonstrated once again that it is the Teflon corporation. A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint against Facebook on Monday, dismissing claims that the social network is a monopoly and is breaking antitrust rules in the United States. The FTC has 30 days to revise its lawsuit against Facebook, but a case brought by 46 state attorneys general in the United States was rejected in its whole by a court who ruled that they had waited too long to proceed.
In a 53-page order, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg said, “Although the court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency’s complaint is legally insufficient and must thus be dismissed.” As Facebook’s stock rose after the ruling, its market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, bringing it closer to the other trillion-dollar tech companies: Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.25 percent, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.40 percent, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +1.25 percent, and Alphabet Inc. GOOG, -0.14 percent GOOG, -0.14 percent GOOG, -0.14 percent GOOG,
Despite multiple unfavorable events, such as the Cambridge Analytics scandal, misinformation on its platform, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s varied congressional testimony, and repeated warnings from its CFO to Wall Street about an impending ad revenue slowdown, Facebook has managed to maintain its ascension. Negative news, on the other hand, does not appear to stick. Continue reading: From 2019: Fines and a slowing growth rate cut Facebook’s earnings, but investors seem unconcerned • From 2019: Did Facebook have a horrible year? Not based on the bottom line The company isn’t completely clear in terms of antitrust, but the judge’s opinion has some interesting points, including noting the FTC’s claims that Facebook has a market share of “in excess of 60%,” but concluding that the allegations “ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power.” The next 30 days will determine whether the FTC files an amended case and how the agency responds to the judge’s concerns. In an email, Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said, “The FTC verdict was a surprise to the Street, but we regard it as a long ‘Game of Thrones’ battle between Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet versus the Beltway over the coming years.” Despite this, Facebook has astonishingly managed to avoid big legal concerns time and time again. The question of whether regulators should take a different approach and focus on the company’s prior privacy and data-collection abuses remains unanswered. Even with all of these legal wranglings going on in the background, Facebook continues to win.
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