The FTC and a group of 46 states in separate antitrust lawsuits on Wednesday alleged that Facebook engaged in a yearslong campaign to acquire or stymie nascent technology companies that it feared could become rivals. The FTC said it was seeking court relief that could include forcing Facebook to sell two of its biggest acquisitions: messaging service WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram, which competition authorities previously chose not to challenge.
The claims put the CEO’s competitive behavior front and center. Since co-founding the social network in his dorm as a Harvard sophomore, Mr. Zuckerberg has closely managed its approach to rivals, including the deals for Instagram, WhatsApp and virtual-reality company Oculus VR, which have helped make Facebook into a giant with a market value of around $800 billion.
