A US judge has dismissed an antitrust case calling for Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, pushing its overall stock market value to over $1 trillion.

Facebook joins Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, and Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco in exceeding the valuation.

The social networking giant’s valuation remains almost half that of the world’s current most valuable company Apple, which is valued at around $2.25 trillion.

Facebook, founded in 2004, is the youngest company to hit the milestone valuation, and the only one founded in the 2000’s.

The allegations claimed the social networking giant engaged in a "systematic strategy" to eliminate its rivals.

The case was filed in December 2019 last year by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a collection of 48 state attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James.

This strategy was said to include its $1 billion 2012 purchase of Instagram and its $19 billion 2014 purchase of WhatsApp.

US District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the claims from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state attorneys general, on the grounds that prosecutors were unable to provide a convincing explanation of their claim that Facebook control more than 60 per cent of the US social networking market.

One of Facebook’s defences key arguments hinged on the fact the FTC investigated and approved the Instagram and WhatsApp deals when they were first announced.

Antitrust proceedings against Facebook are also ongoing in the UK; the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into Facebook over its collection and use of data earlier this month.

The probe will look at whether the social media giant might be abusing a dominant position in the market through its use of advertising and single sign-on data.

"We are pleased that today's decisions recognise the defects in the government complaints filed against Facebook,” said a Facebook spokesperson. "We compete fairly every day to earn people's time and attention and will continue to deliver great products for the people and businesses that use our services."

"These allegations - which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook's market share at any point over the past 10 years - ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power," said US District Judge James Boasberg.

“We are reviewing this decision and considering our legal options,” said a spokesman for the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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