Brits Force Facebook Parent Company to Sell Giphy

Facebook’s parent company has also been forced to sell the animation platform Giphy after an appeal in the United Kingdom. The British watchdog Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled last year that the acquisition by Meta is too damaging to competition.

Resistance to a British professional judge did nothing for Meta, which, in addition to Facebook, also owns WhatsApp and Instagram.

Giphy is a database of gif animations for social media and chat apps. This allows users to spice up chat conversations or messages on social media. The animations can also be used for commercials.

The CMA fears that social media platform users will be left with too little choice after the acquisition of Giphy, for which Meta auctioned $400 million this spring. In addition, competition in the online advertising market would also suffer from the acquisition, as Meta could remove gif animations from competing platforms.

Meta says in a response that he is disappointed but accepts the final verdict. Meta was previously fined £50.5 million for the acquisition. Giphy had to be separated from the rest of the group before the British would give permission, but Meta was too vague about that in the opinion of the CMA.