This week, during Meta’s antitrust trial, CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Snapchat’s growth would have been more rapid if the company had accepted Meta’s acquisition offer in 2013, as reported by Business Insider.

According to court documents, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, had offered to purchase Snapchat for $6 billion (although initial reports suggested the figure was $3 billion, as seen in this article). When questioned by an FTC attorney, Zuckerberg expressed his belief that Snapchat was not reaching its full growth potential and that his company could have enhanced the app.

Zuckerberg testified, “In my opinion, if we had acquired them, their growth would have been accelerated, but that’s speculative.”

The government referenced the failed acquisition attempt to support its argument that Meta seeks to maintain its dominance in the social media landscape through the acquisition of rival companies, rather than competing with them directly.

The FTC aims to compel Meta to restructure or divest Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing that the company’s multibillion-dollar acquisitions of these apps were intended to stifle competition and create an unlawful monopoly.