WASHINGTON (AP) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized in federal court on Wednesday that he bought Instagram and WhatsApp because he saw value in the companies — not to take out competitors, as the Federal Trade Commission alleges in a historic antitrust trial.
Zuckerberg took the stand for the third day in the trial, wrapping up his testimony as the first witness Wednesday afternoon. He took questions from Meta attorney Mark Hansen, who has argued that his client hardly has a monopoly in social media, as the FTC claims, and still faces stiff global competition.
Hansen focused some of his questioning on emails sent by Zuckerberg and his associates that the FTC cited in earlier testimony to illustrate the Facebook founder’s alarm over the growth of Instagram and his sense that he needed to neutralize its threat.
Zuckerberg said he’s very focused on inventing new things, and understanding what other people are creating is a big part of the process. At any given point in his company’s history, he said, similar tones of concern could be found in emails about what other companies were doing better than his.
“This is my job,” Zuckerberg said. “I need to understand what is going on, and I need to push our teams to move quickly” to learn about what is going on in a very competitive market.