Facebook seeks EU review of WhatsApp deal
Facebook is seeking an anti-trust review by the European Union over its $19bn acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp.
The social network has approached the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm which deals with anti-trust issues, to see if the body could help it avoid anti-trust reviews in multiple EU countries, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The request comes after European telecom companies put pressure on Facebook over the fact that WhatsApp would give the social network an unfair advantage in the instant messaging market in Europe.
The deal, which was announced in February, marks Facebook’s largest acquisition to date, leap frogging Instagram which was bought for around $1bn in 2012.
According to figures from eMarketer Facebook accounted for a 17.5 per cent share of worldwide mobile ad spend in 2013, up from a 5.4 per cent in 2012, with 20.8m mobile phone Facebook users in the UK in 2013, up 41.7 per cent from 2012.
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