- From:
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Date:
- Oct. 31, 2013
[ … ] Not shown: Text before this is not public.
I’m disappointed and frustrated by this.1 (Fact note 1)Fact · 1With hindsightThe full email is not public. What is known comes from one FTC trial slide, headed “PSN Apps = Meta Tried to Buy Snap Too”, which quotes these two sentences beside a blurred, partly redacted image of the email and labels it “PX2976, Email from Mr. Zuckerberg (Oct. 31, 2013) at -001”. The brackets are the FTC’s. Business Insider, reporting from the trial, quoted the second sentence as “At this point, we should probably prepare for it to leak that we offered $6b for them and all the negative that will come from that,” and quoted lines it attributed to “an October 2013 email to other company executives”: “I delivered the offer to Evan and he seemed to take it well.” We cannot confirm from a primary source that those lines are from PX2976, or what “this” refers to.SourcesFederal Trade CommissionFTC v. Meta Platforms: Plaintiff's Opening Statement14 Apr 2025Business Insider (via AOL)Mark Zuckerberg sounds salty about Snapchat rejecting his offer to buy it15 Apr 2025
[ … ] Not shown: Text between the quoted sentences is not public.
[W]e should probably prepare for it to leak2 (Fact note 2)Fact · 2With hindsightThe talks were reported at the time, but not this figure. Bloomberg Law, reporting from the trial on 15 April 2025, wrote that Meta “considered buying Snap Inc. for $6 billion in 2013” and that “The number was not previously known, as reports at the time pegged the discussions as for half that much.”SourceBloomberg LawZuckerberg Revisits Instagram Buy in FTC Meta Monopoly Case (1)15 Apr 2025 that we offered $6b3 (Editorial note 3)Editorial · 3Known at the timeEighteen months earlier Facebook had agreed to buy Instagram for a total consideration of “approximately $1 billion”, after Zuckerberg told Kevin Systrom “I can't get to $2 billion.” Here the stated offer is $6b, for an app Snap says it had launched slightly more than two years before. The jump shows how much Facebook was now willing to pay to own a new way of sharing with friends rather than build one.SourcesMeta NewsroomFacebook to Acquire Instagram9 Apr 2012sriramk.com (copy of the House Judiciary production)Facebook_Redactions.pdfJul 2020Snap Inc., SEC Form S-1 (Internet Archive copy)S-12 Feb 2017 for [Snap]4 (Fact note 4)Fact · 4With hindsightSnap’s IPO filing says that “In October 2013, slightly more than two years after we first launched Snapchat, we introduced My Story”, the same month as this email, and that at first Stories “weren’t very popular”. Instagram introduced its own Stories on 2 August 2016. Snap’s filing called it a feature that “largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive”. In November 2025 the court in FTC v. Meta found that “Snapchat first popularized stories, and Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok added identical versions.”SourcesSnap Inc., SEC Form S-1 (Internet Archive copy)S-12 Feb 2017Instagram Blog (Internet Archive copy)Introducing Instagram Stories2 Aug 2016US District Court for DC (CourtListener)FTC v. Meta Platforms, Memorandum Opinion18 Nov 2025 and all the negative that will come from that5 (Editorial note 5)Editorial · 5Known at the timeThe sentence plans for the story, not the next move. A refused offer at that price tells the market what Facebook thought Snapchat was worth and that Facebook could not buy it, which hands the smaller company a valuation anchor and a narrative. In 2012 Zuckerberg asked Systrom to make sure a refusal did not become “a public story about how you guys turned us down”; here he expects the leak and prepares for it.Sourcesriramk.com (copy of the House Judiciary production)Facebook_Redactions.pdfJul 2020.
[ … ] Not shown: The rest of the email is not public.
All 5 notes and their sources
I’m disappointed and frustrated by this.
Fact · 1With hindsightThe full email is not public. What is known comes from one FTC trial slide, headed “PSN Apps = Meta Tried to Buy Snap Too”, which quotes these two sentences beside a blurred, partly redacted image of the email and labels it “PX2976, Email from Mr. Zuckerberg (Oct. 31, 2013) at -001”. The brackets are the FTC’s. Business Insider, reporting from the trial, quoted the second sentence as “At this point, we should probably prepare for it to leak that we offered $6b for them and all the negative that will come from that,” and quoted lines it attributed to “an October 2013 email to other company executives”: “I delivered the offer to Evan and he seemed to take it well.” We cannot confirm from a primary source that those lines are from PX2976, or what “this” refers to.SourcesFederal Trade CommissionFTC v. Meta Platforms: Plaintiff's Opening Statement14 Apr 2025Business Insider (via AOL)Mark Zuckerberg sounds salty about Snapchat rejecting his offer to buy it15 Apr 2025Back to the passage[W]e should probably prepare for it to leak
Fact · 2With hindsightThe talks were reported at the time, but not this figure. Bloomberg Law, reporting from the trial on 15 April 2025, wrote that Meta “considered buying Snap Inc. for $6 billion in 2013” and that “The number was not previously known, as reports at the time pegged the discussions as for half that much.”SourceBloomberg LawZuckerberg Revisits Instagram Buy in FTC Meta Monopoly Case (1)15 Apr 2025Back to the passagewe offered $6b
Editorial · 3Known at the timeEighteen months earlier Facebook had agreed to buy Instagram for a total consideration of “approximately $1 billion”, after Zuckerberg told Kevin Systrom “I can't get to $2 billion.” Here the stated offer is $6b, for an app Snap says it had launched slightly more than two years before. The jump shows how much Facebook was now willing to pay to own a new way of sharing with friends rather than build one.SourcesMeta NewsroomFacebook to Acquire Instagram9 Apr 2012sriramk.com (copy of the House Judiciary production)Facebook_Redactions.pdfJul 2020Snap Inc., SEC Form S-1 (Internet Archive copy)S-12 Feb 2017Back to the passage[Snap]
Fact · 4With hindsightSnap’s IPO filing says that “In October 2013, slightly more than two years after we first launched Snapchat, we introduced My Story”, the same month as this email, and that at first Stories “weren’t very popular”. Instagram introduced its own Stories on 2 August 2016. Snap’s filing called it a feature that “largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive”. In November 2025 the court in FTC v. Meta found that “Snapchat first popularized stories, and Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok added identical versions.”SourcesSnap Inc., SEC Form S-1 (Internet Archive copy)S-12 Feb 2017Instagram Blog (Internet Archive copy)Introducing Instagram Stories2 Aug 2016US District Court for DC (CourtListener)FTC v. Meta Platforms, Memorandum Opinion18 Nov 2025Back to the passageall the negative that will come from that
Editorial · 5Known at the timeThe sentence plans for the story, not the next move. A refused offer at that price tells the market what Facebook thought Snapchat was worth and that Facebook could not buy it, which hands the smaller company a valuation anchor and a narrative. In 2012 Zuckerberg asked Systrom to make sure a refusal did not become “a public story about how you guys turned us down”; here he expects the leak and prepares for it.Sourcesriramk.com (copy of the House Judiciary production)Facebook_Redactions.pdfJul 2020Back to the passage