The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Nov. 19, edition that Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced it to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that it does not hold a monopoly in social networking. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued his ruling Tuesday after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May. His decision follows rulings that deemed Alphabet's Google an illegal monopoly in search and on-line advertising. The Federal Trade Commission "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," Justice 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." Meta, the FTC had argued, has maintained a monopoly by pursuing chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg's strategy, "expressed in 2008: 'It is better to buy than compete.'"