Instagram head Adam Mosseri is scheduled to provide potentially pivotal testimony this week as Meta defends itself against the Federal Trade Commission in a closely watched antitrust trial.
The FTC is accusing Meta of unfairly boxing out competition in a case that may force the California-based company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp.
Mr Mosseri is scheduled to take the witness box on May 8. The date was set after brief controversy the day before as FTC and Meta lawyers sparred over the timeline for witnesses to be called.
FTC lawyer Daniel Matheson accused Meta of making last-minute adjustments.
The FTC told Judge James Boasberg there was an agreement to allow some “spillover time” for the questioning and cross examination of Mr Mosseri stretching into early next week, but that Meta suddenly adjusted his schedule.
“They now claim for the first time last night that there’s a blackout date on Monday,” said Mr Matheson, referring to Meta's adjusting witness list schedules based on the availability of Mr Mosseri.
“We work very hard to accommodate to them for all their schedules.”
The dates of the Instagram boss's court appearance may seem trivial, but Mr Mosseri and Instagram represent a significant portion of the FTC's case against Meta.
Besides Meta's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Mr Mosseri, who is in charge of both Instagram and Threads, has become one of the most prominent figures in the Meta universe.
He frequently hosts question-and-answer sessions on Instagram, offering tips and tricks of how to get the most from the photo and video sharing platform.
Meta bought Instagram in 2012 for approximately $1 billion. That purchase, along with a later acquisition of WhatsApp are the biggest elements to the FTC's accusations that Meta unfairly chose to snuff out rival companies, rather than compete with them in the marketplace.
The FTC is trying to convince Judge Boasberg that Meta's alleged anticompetitive practices hurt customers and the marketplace of ideas.
The trial, now in its fourth week, is expected to take at least two months before the judge deliberates on whether the FTC's antitrust arguments are enough to warrant a remedy.
In a worst-case scenario for Meta, the company could be required to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp, significantly hurting the social media company's revenue and influence among consumers and the tech world.
Mr Zuckerberg, along with the company's former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, have been among the star witnesses so far.
Meta lawyers hit back against the accusation they were trying to manipulate witness schedules, telling Judge Boasberg that new evidence belatedly provided by social media company Snap caused the need to adjust timings.
As for Mr Mosseri, according to his recent Instagram posts shared with his more than three million followers, he was in New York on Monday for the Met Gala, and just prior was in India for a Meta-related event promoting Instagram features.
Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
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SPECS
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THE%20SPECS
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The biog
From: Ras Al Khaimah
Age: 50
Profession: Electronic engineer, worked with Etisalat for the past 20 years
Hobbies: 'Anything that involves exploration, hunting, fishing, mountaineering, the sea, hiking, scuba diving, and adventure sports'
Favourite quote: 'Life is so simple, enjoy it'
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry
4/5
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The biog
Favourite car: Ferrari
Likes the colour: Black
Best movie: Avatar
Academic qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in media production from the Higher Colleges of Technology and diploma in production from the New York Film Academy
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
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