Proactive Investors - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (NASDAQ:META) owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) defended his acquisition of virtual reality fitness app, Within, to an antitrust judge on Tuesday, arguing that Meta was helping to build a nascent virtual reality industry, not dominate it, Reuters reported.
In testimony to a federal court in San Jose, California, Zuckerberg said that owning app maker Within was "not that critical" to Meta's ambitions, saying he primarily aimed to build communications tools and a platform for apps from different developers, the newswire said.
On fitness apps, Zuckerberg noted that "it's less important that we own the experiences than that they exist." He said he was keen to see other firms build key productivity and gaming apps to draw a mass audience to virtual and augmented reality, Reuters added.
Zuckerberg was defending the proposed acquisition after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Meta of trying to buy its way to the top of the VR industry.
FTC lawyers kicked off the proceedings by asking him about an internal email Zuckerberg wrote in 2015 where he said he expected Meta to build "most of the apps and software services" for the VR industry, Reuters reported.
Zuckerberg replied that major platform owners tend to build the most popular apps in their area of expertise, likening Meta's emphasis on communications to Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s focus on productivity.
The FTC, which sued the Facebook and Instagram owner in July to stop the Within deal, asked the trial judge to order a preliminary injunction, saying Meta's "campaign to conquer VR" began in 2014 when it acquired Oculus, a VR headset manufacturer.
The trial is only one of many battles Meta is fighting against regulators globally over its alleged dominance in various markets. The European Commission on Monday said it had warned Meta of a possible antitrust breach related to online classified advertising.
The company said earlier on Tuesday that it does not expect to close the Within deal before January 31 or until the day after the court rules on the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction.
The social media company agreed to buy Within in October 2021, a day after changing its name from Facebook to Meta. Within developed Supernatural, a VR app it advertises as a "complete fitness service" with choreographed workouts. It is available only on Meta's Quest headsets, which market research firm IDC estimates account for 90% of global shipments in the VR hardware market.
Meta also controls a Meta Quest Store with hundreds of apps, including top app Beat Saber, a dance game that executives considered expanding into the fitness space. Zuckerberg testified that the Beat Saber proposal never proceeded beyond the brainstorming stage.
Zuckerberg told the court he decided to pursue the deal when Meta was in a stronger financial position and that he probably would not make the same decision in the current economic climate, Reuters said.
The FTC is separately trying to force Meta to unwind two previous acquisitions, Instagram and WhatsApp, in a lawsuit filed in 2020. Both were in relatively new markets at the time the companies were purchased.