Meta’s Victory Opens the Way for Silicon Valley to Go Deal Shopping NYT | Top Stories Eli Tan, Mike Isaac and Erin Griffith 19 November 2025 at 06:56 To avoid regulatory scrutiny, big tech companies had steered clear of buying start-ups outright. Meta’s antitrust win may change that thinking. © Jason Henry for The New York TimesMark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, in September. On Tuesday, a federal judge found Meta had not violated antitrust law by buying Instagram and WhatsApp when they were tiny start-ups.