Despite initially announcing its plans to close the deal on December 31 and acquire virtual reality fitness platform Within Unlimited, Meta has once again agreed not to close the deal until January 31st.
According to Reuters, Meta decided not to close the deal until the first day after the court rules on U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) preliminary injunction trial.
The FTC previously sued Meta to stop its acquisition of Within Unlimited, arguing that the Facebook parent company Meta is a “global technology behemoth” that’ll “conquer” the VR space if allowed to acquire Within.
Meta has denied the FTC’s claim and has been pushing to seal the deal ever since. The social media company has a history of acquiring startups and small companies in the VR space that can become potential competitors and hinder its metaverse ambitions.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta currently has the best-selling VR headset on the market, the Quest 2, as well as controlling hundreds of apps in the Meta Quest Store. Within Unlimited, however, creates original VR content and describes itself as “the premier destination for cinematic virtual reality.”
The FTC has narrowed its complaint on the platform to focus primarily on fitness apps with a protracted court session kicking off earlier this month. And while it might not win the case, it does have a chance of stopping the deal from happening if Meta isn’t patient.
In what is starting to look like an extensive case, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said in court, “if this deal doesn’t close in a timely matter, we’ll probably just walk away.”
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
