United States of America eSeries: Facebook's trillion-dollar break 💰

Facebook's trillion-dollar break 💰

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Facebook just became a trillion-dollar company. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

💰 ANTI-MONOPOLY MONEY

It's one small win for Facebook, and one trillion small wins for Facebook shareholders.

WHAT HAPPENED?

A federal judge dealt a major blow to US regulators' efforts to break up Facebook, dismissing two complaints that accused the company of holding a monopoly on social media.

It's not good news for Facebook, it's fan-freakin-tastic news for Facebook. Pop-the-champagne-and-dance-a-jig kind of news. The company's stock shot up 4% on the decision, pushing it to a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time ever.

MONOPOLY ALLEGATIONS
The gist of the antitrust cases against Facebook goes something like this:

The FTC alleged that Facebook violated the nation's anti-monopoly laws by acquiring startups like Instagram and WhatsApp that it perceived as a threat to its dominance.
That so-called buy-or-bury strategy allegedly helped Facebook maintain its status as a top-tier social networking company.
The complaint asserted that Facebook holds a "60%-plus" share of the social media market. The FTC didn't do enough to back up that claim, the judge said.

In a separate decision, the judge completely threw out a similar antitrust suit against Facebook brought by dozens of state governments, saying they waited too long to challenge the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, which were completed in 2012 and 2014.

WHAT'S NEXT?

While the judge dismissed the FTC's complaint, he declined to throw out the case overall, saying the issues with the lawsuit could be addressed if the agency filed an amended complaint. It has 30 days to do so.

CNN Business' Brian Fung has more.

🏳️🌈 QUOTE OF THE DAY

Now is the time for corporate leaders to go far beyond their rainbow-clad media presence and use their platforms to take real action.

As we celebrate Pride month, it's important to acknowledge that not only does discrimination still exist, it continues to be codified into laws, writes Richard Ditizio, president of the Milken Institute, for CNN Business. CEOs have a responsibility to stand up for their LGBTQ employees, customers and shareholders by demanding that Congress pass the Equality Act, Ditizio writes.

🏦 TALENT WAR

Wall Street has been predictably harsh when it comes to returning to the office. The mood is more or less "get back to work or else."

But a few exceptions have emerged, and the shifting work cultures could have huge implications for banks.

UBS, the Swiss bank, is allowing up to two-thirds of its employees around the world to permanently adopt a hybrid schedule, my colleague Matt Egan reports. Citi is similarly embracing flexibility with a mostly hybrid workforce.

On the other end of the spectrum, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America say the days of doing deals in sweatpants over Zoom are over. Time for everyone to dust off their suits and get back to beating their chests in unison.

MY TAKE

That rigid back-to-office approach could backfire.

Wall Street's had a recruiting problem for years. That's because the pool of young people willing to endure 90-hour weeks, even with the promise of ridonkulous pay and perks down the road, is shrinking. Ambitious grads can instead opt to work for a tech company, where they will still make an above-average wage, can wear whatever they like most days and work remotely when they need to.

But Citi and UBS appear to be offering a version of Wall Street work that's never existed before – one that, while still grueling, treats workers with a bit more humanity. And that could give them a huge edge in recruiting.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🧥Burberry shares plunged 8.6% in London after it announced that its CEO is quitting to join rival fashion label Salvatore Ferragamo. Somebody page Tim Gunn because there is some high-fashion drama going down.

📉America's pandemic-induced recession has been a painful one — but it might also already be over.

🐎The new Ford Bronco is here, finally. And Jeep has some serious competition.

💰 E-cigarette maker Juul Labs will pay $40 million to settle a North Carolina lawsuit that alleged the company marketed to teens.