Office of Fair Trading rules not to refer Facebook's $1bn acquisition of Instagram to Competition Commission
The Office of Fair Trading will not refer the $1bn acquisition of Instagram by Facebook to the Competition Commission it has announced.
Following the acquisition announcement in May that will see the image based app acquired by Facebook, the OFT opened an investigation into the transaction.
Having considered both the impact of online display advertising and the supply of photo apps, as well as the foreclosure of competing social networks and mobile photo apps, the acquisition has been cleared.
Summing up its decision, the decision document explained; “The OFT does not believe that it is or may be the case that the merger may be expected to result in a substantial lessing of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdon.”
As a result, the merger will not be referred to the Competition Commission.