Back in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg was already playing 4D chess with Meta’s future. In an email thread with execs, he mused about spinning off Instagram—a move that’s now front and center in the FTC’s antitrust case against Meta. CNBC and The New York Times dug up the receipts this week, showing Zuck’s eerie foresight. 😉
“I’m beginning to wonder whether spinning Instagram out is the only structure that will accomplish a number of important goals,” Zuckerberg wrote. He even nailed the timeline: “…we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway.” Six years later, here we are.
Zuck’s testimony this week? A masterclass in corporate hindsight. He defended buying Instagram as a pragmatic “build-vs.-buy” decision, admitting Facebook’s own Camera app couldn’t compete. “Building a new app is hard,” he shrugged, citing Meta’s graveyard of failed projects.
The trial stems from a 2020 lawsuit targeting Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram ($1B in 2012) and WhatsApp ($19B in 2014). If the FTC wins, Meta might have to sell one or both. Bonus drama: a 2013 email revealed Zuck ordered execs to block ads from Asian rivals Kakao and WeChat, calling them existential threats. Cold.
TL;DR: Zuck saw this coming, but buying time doesn’t mean beating the clock.
