Meta selling Giphy after UK regulator fight

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, announced Tuesday it was selling Giphy after U.K. regulators ruled the company’s acquisition limited competition.

Meta had been ordered in Nov. 2021 to sell the GIF-sharing website and appealed, but the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority rejected Meta’s claims and concluded the company needed to sell to an approved buyer.

The ruling marks the first time a global regulator has been able to stop a deal by one of the tech giants.

During the appeal process, Giphy claimed no other company would buy it because GIFs “have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with younger users in particular describing GIFs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe,’” citing the decline in uploads to the platform.

“We are disappointed by the CMA’s decision but accept today’s ruling as the final word on the matter. We will work closely with the CMA on divesting GIPHY,” Meta said in a statement. “We will continue to evaluate opportunities — including through acquisition — to bring innovation and choice to more people in the UK and around the world.”

Meta — previously known as Facebook — bought Giphy for a reported $400 million in May 2020 in an acquisition that experts described as slipping through an antitrust loophole at the time. Facebook previously bought Instagram for $1 billion and WhatsApp for $19 billion.

The CMA’s original decision concluded that if Facebook owned Giphy, both social media users and advertisers would be hurt because fewer options for sharing GIFs would be available.

With News Wire Services