Meta’s Supernatural acquisition is facing FTC scrutiny

The FTC is taking a closer look at Meta’s proposed acquisition of Within, the Los Angeles-based immersive media startup behind the VR fitness service Supernatural, the Information was first to report late Thursday. The proposed deal would value Within between $400 and $500 million, according to multiple reports — enough to raise some red flags with regulators.

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“Our partnership with Within will bring innovation to the virtual reality community in a dynamic and competitive space,” a Meta spokesperson told Protocol Thursday. “Meta and Within together will offer people greater experiences and better services through this deal." Meta's spokesperson declined to comment further on the probe.

The increased scrutiny comes as Meta is doubling down on the metaverse; the company announced its plans to acquire Within a day after it changed its name from Facebook. Prior to this, Facebook had acquired a handful of AR and VR content startups, generally for a lot less money.

Within launched Supernatural as a VR fitness service in April 2020.

CEO Chris Milk told Protocol at the time that the startup was seeing fitness as a way to broaden the appeal of VR beyond gaming. “Our larger hope is that we can bring in a whole new type of audience into virtual reality that might not have been interested in it for the use case it has been promoted for thus far,” he said.