Meta Platforms (META) chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg offered to pay $450 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission antitrust case late last month in order to avoid a trial, the Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sources told the Journal that Zuckerberg called FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson to make the offer, which was less than FTC's demand of $30 billion, the report said. Meta raised its offer to nearly $1 billion but the regulator would not accept any offer less than $18 billion, the report added.

Negotiations failed, and the trial started on Monday, with Zuckerberg taking the witness stand Tuesday, The WSJ report said.

Meta Platforms and the Federal Trade Commission did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' requests for comments.

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