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Posted by ianrahman 4/15/2025

Mark Zuckerberg's failed negotiations with the FTC to end Meta's antitrust case(www.wsj.com)
89 points | 93 commentspage 2
1vuio0pswjnm7 4/16/2025|
"FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson found the offer not credible, and wasn't ready to settle for anything less than $18 billion and a consent decree."

"Former FTC Chair Lina Khan told the Journal that the company's $450 million settlement offer was "delusional.""

OsrsNeedsf2P 4/16/2025||
People saying Zuck's ass kissing didn't work are missing the point. If it even has a 1 in 10 chance of working, it's worth it
dylan604 4/16/2025||
If you're going to be an ass kisser, you can't do it half way. You gotta make the ass being kissed like it's the only ass you'll ever kiss again. Phony ass kissing is so obvious that the ass being kissed is insulted even more. At that point, you'd have been better off doing nothing
lazide 4/16/2025||
God, I miss Weyoun. The things he could teach these amateurs.
kashunstva 4/16/2025||
> it's worth it

Only after factoring out the effects of your integrity and self-respect. But I suppose that in Meta’s case we can assume that sort of pre-discounting of character was already done.

xnx 4/16/2025||
> Only after factoring out the effects of your integrity and self-respect.

I'd definitely sell these for my first billion, but probably not my Nth.

9283409232 4/16/2025||
It would be hilarious if Zuckerberg spent all this time kissing Trump's ass only for him to not care and the FTC wins against Meta.
Apocryphon 4/16/2025||
Before departing, Lina Khan slips him a memo suggesting that the Facebook Feed undercuts Truth Social
JustExAWS 4/16/2025|||
See Nvidia

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/trump_responds_to_nvi...

giancarlostoro 4/16/2025|||
As your article states, even in 2022 this was done as well. Restricting China from getting top of the line GPUs is nothing new or unique to the current administration.
JustExAWS 4/16/2025||
The difference is that Nvidia actually worked with the previous administration, had enough time to design chips that met the requirements and wasn’t stuck holding inventory.
9283409232 4/16/2025||||
The sooner big business learns you don't play ball with fascist the better.
yks 4/16/2025||
Not holding my breath, Weimar industrialists were backing the conservative-Nazi alliance until conservatives were all gone. Modern American barons are of the same foreseeing capabilities (unless they’re Thiel who wants monarchy or whatever).
techpineapple 4/16/2025|||
geez, like three days ago I though NVIDIA was saved, now not, let's see what happens tomorrow.
ragnot 4/16/2025|||
I'm sure it was always the plan. Trump never forgives but he wants to humiliate and lure in before he strikes
mattnewton 4/16/2025||
A big looming federal court case or judgement gives Trump leverage, why would he intervene so soon?
blcknight 4/16/2025||
Looks like all the bending the knee to Trump didn't work out so well for Zuck.
Mistletoe 4/16/2025||
There is this silver lining to all the tech boot licking, it didn't even work. They should have just stood their ground, what was your soul worth, Jeff, Mark, etc.?
onemoresoop 4/16/2025|||
You seem to imply these billios had a soul in the first place. I really doubt that’s the case.
bloomingeek 4/16/2025||
I'm not sure if they have a soul either. However, they hate losing money! Which we can call motivation to fight back in ways that us normals can't. After Elon loses enough money we may see a political divorce of epic proportions, that will be very entertaining to watch. (Can you imagine what it will be like if trump threatens the Starlink contracts?!?)
zelphirkalt 4/16/2025|||
Those souls were sold a looong time ago.
dylan604 4/16/2025|||
The bending of the knee wasn't followed by a briefcase full of cash, or a large enough donation to the campaign/library fund, or not enough meme coin purchase. Maybe he should have shown up to Mar-a-lago wearing a Trump watch carrying a Trump bible. In other words, Zuck didn't come across as truly loyal in his meetings with Trump.
bloomingeek 4/16/2025||
Well put, perhaps this could be the beginning of a super rich person rebelling against the current administration? Goodness knows somebody needs to, or he will run them all over until it's time to completely burn the rest of us who don't have the means to defend ourselves in court. If recent news is to be believed from major networks simply reporting what trump says, NOTHING is beyond his contempt for anyone who doesn't bend the knee, which is un-american.
zelphirkalt 4/16/2025||
How I would hate to see Zuck of all people be displayed as some kind of key figure in resisting fascism. The enabler of ethnic purges, proven criminal, put up on whatever kind of pedestal. And then the silly people forever reminding me of it by saying something along the lines: "But look, he did something with his money! He got us freedom back!" or some other BS. Maybe I should already practice restraint, just in case.
bloomingeek 4/16/2025|||
Ha, you're absolutely right! (Let's also not forget how FB literally steals everyone's privacy who uses the app.) I wouldn't worry about getting teased about the zuckster doing anything helpful, on NPR this morning they revealed he offered the trump administration 450 million dollars(!) to call the whole thing off, which they refused.

For those of us who haven't drank the GOP kool-aid, practiced restraint is now a way of life.

dylan604 4/16/2025|||
Isn’t that pretty much the playbook though? The younger evil villain slays the older evil villain to take its place? Just because one slays the evil ruler doesn’t mean they are just themselves.
mock-possum 4/16/2025||
it never does
Apocryphon 4/16/2025||
So much for the vaccine skepticism as free speech virtue signaling
alex1138 4/17/2025||
The people/person who flagged my reply: care to elaborate? It's someone from industry. She's not wrong, you are
alex1138 4/16/2025||
[flagged]
amazingamazing 4/16/2025|
just ban all acquisitions and stop the charades. all acquisitions will be anti competitive if they succeed anyway
SoftTalker 4/16/2025||
I take it you don’t work in a startup.
onemoresoop 4/16/2025||
That’s the sole reason most startups exist, the hope for payday by acquisition..
techpineapple 4/16/2025|||
That might be amazing.
semiquaver 4/16/2025||
What? How would that work?
jprd 4/16/2025||
Startups would try and build a profitable business instead of aiming for an acquisition.

Or do you mean preventing the acquisitions in a legal manner?

esafak 4/16/2025||
There is nothing wrong with acquisitions. It's one way big companies rejuvenate, and startups get a liquidity event. And if it's not an acquihire, the product can get broader distribution. Some companies are started to be acquired; their product of value mostly to big companies.
barnabee 4/16/2025|||
Why not let big companies die and be replaced by startups if the only way they can succeed is by [ab]using their incumbent position to “rejuvenate” (a euphemism if ever I saw one!)?

It would stop worse products winning as a result of resources gained through prior successes (and monopolistic practices).

In fact, I’d be happy to see a situation where sufficiently unrelated businesses have to be sold off after some grace period even if they were developed in house.

soraminazuki 4/16/2025|||
That's some euphemistic way of saying that monopolies can get even bigger without even any pretense of competition. We all know where this ends. The monopolists win big and consumers will have to suck it up.
philipallstar 4/16/2025||
No, it means the company can succeed and the service they built has a chance to continue. The choice isn't "be acquired or enter a Nirvana" it's often "be acquired or die".
const_cast 4/16/2025|||
Yes, and we need a lot more death in the tech company space. The problem is we have a lot of companies that are just bad, stupid ideas that are allowed to survive because they're on life support. We just dump hundreds of millions in marketings to cover up the shit product. And then we purposefully operate at a loss to flood the market, aka defrauding consumers, to cover up the shit product.

And then, like 12 years later, after our anti-competitive practices have paid off and we have 90% market share, we jump our prices 200% and drop our quality as we enter our robber baron business strategy.

All of this, because the shit company didn't die when it's time came. Instead, like a zombie, it now feeds on the brains of consumers that have no where else to turn.

soraminazuki 4/16/2025|||
It's the same thing. What you're describing is called embrace, extend, and extinguish. Or the more modern variant of embrace, extend, and enshittify.
philipallstar 4/16/2025||
Well no, if you don't have money to continue, that's not someone killing you.