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Meta defeated a major challenge to its business on Tuesday when a US judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking.

The case, brought by the US Federal Trade Commission, could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, with the former FTC chair accusing the company of operating a “buy or bury” scheme against nascent competitors. The tech giant bought WhatsApp for $19bn in 2014. Losing either the image-based social network, which generates an estimated half of Meta’s revenue, or the world’s most popular messaging app could have done existential damage to Meta’s empire.

The US district judge James Boasberg issued his ruling on Tuesday after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May.

“The landscape that existed only five years ago when the Federal Trade Commission brought this antitrust suit has changed markedly,” Boasberg wrote, citing the rise of TikTok in particular as evidence of competition in the social networking market. Boasberg also chided the FTC, which brought the case against the tech giant, for failing to account for the YouTube video platform as meaningful competition. “Even if YouTube is out, including TikTok alone defeats the FTC’s case,” he wrote.

Jennifer Newstead, Meta’s chief legal officer, wrote at the start of the trial: “It’s absurd that the FTC is trying to break up a great American company at the same time the administration is trying to save Chinese-owned TikTok.”

The judge’s decision follows two separate rulings that branded Google an illegal monopoly in both search and online advertising, dealing a regulatory blow to the tech giant that for years enjoyed nearly unbridled growth.

In contrast to the victory over Google, the ruling in Meta’s favor dampens the regulatory crackdown initiated by the US government to rein in tech giants, some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world. The FTC has also sued Amazon for anticompetitive practices. The US justice department has filed suit against Apple, accusing it of operating a “broad, sustained and illegal smartphone monopoly”.

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The FTC “continues to insist that Meta competes with the same old rivals it has for the last decade, that the company holds a monopoly among that small set, and that it maintained that monopoly through anticompetitive acquisitions”, Boasberg wrote in his ruling. “Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now. The court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so.”

By Emily Bary

With 10%-plus drops off their recent closing highs, Amazon and Nvidia shares have joined Tesla shares in correction territory. Meta’s stock is already in a bear market.

Amazon’s stock is now off more than 12% from its recent closing high.

Shares of Amazon and Nvidia entered correction territory on Tuesday as the technology sector’s selloff intensified.

The recent pressure on Amazon’s stock (AMZN) means it has essentially wiped out all the gains it saw following the company’s third-quarter earnings report. Those earnings originally seemed to change the tune around the stock, solidifying the company as one that’s benefiting from artificial intelligence.

And while that may still be true, Wall Street seems less preoccupied with finding AI winners given increased scrutiny of the cost of the technological buildout. Amazon recently completed a $15 billion debt deal, partly to finance its AI ambitions.

Read: As Amazon raises $15 billion in a bond deal, investors worry about companies taking on too much AI debt

Meanwhile, the selloff in Nvidia shares (NVDA) comes as that company prepares to report earnings on Wednesday afternoon.

“Numbers and expectations are very well telegraphed,” said Jeffrey Favuzza, a tech, media and telecommunications strategist with Jefferies. But there’s still “a lot of excitement” around Nvidia, he added, while predicting a “buy-the-dip mentality,” as earnings could prove to be a clearing event for the market.

Other Big Tech stocks have swiftly fallen out of favor as well. Tesla’s stock (TSLA) is already in a correction, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more from a recent closing high. And since Nov. 4, Meta’s stock (META) has been in bear-market territory, which is categorized as a 20%-plus decline off recent closing highs.

See also: The lone bear on Meta’s stock foresaw its struggles – and sees more trouble ahead

Looking outside the group of megacap tech stocks known as the Magnificent Seven, shares of Broadcom (AVGO) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) entered corrections earlier in November, while Oracle’s stock (ORCL) has been in a bear market since Oct. 30. It closed Tuesday at 33% off its recent highs.

Oracle shares have given back all the massive gains they saw after the cloud company’s last earnings report, when it disclosed 359% growth in its remaining performance obligations, a measure of business that has been contracted but not yet recognized as revenue.

“Basically that entire RPO backlog that OpenAI gave them and committed to is now completely out of the stock,” Favuzza said.

Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) shares have held up better, both off less than 3% from their recent highs. Apple has been more disciplined than the other Big Tech players when it comes to AI spending, so it’s not subject to the same investor worries about the cost of AI financing. And Alphabet is “still the most crowded long on a tactical basis” within the Magnificent Seven, according to Favuzza.

“They seem to be firing on all cylinders from the product-innovation side now that there’s a little bit less concern on the antitrust side,” he told MarketWatch. A judge in September declined to issue steep penalties in a monopoly case that could have forced the divestiture of Chrome.

More from MarketWatch: Google’s Gemini 3 is finally here. Can it power Alphabet’s stock even higher?

-Emily Bary

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  11-18-25 1637ET
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