Meta loses millions as made to sell Giphy to Shutterstock

Image consequentlyurce, Getty Images

Meta has consequentlyld animated-gif search engine Giphy to Shutterstock for $53m (£42m), notwithstanding paying $400m for it just three years ago.

Last year, the UK's rival watchdog reissued an order to Meta to sell Giphy, on rival grounds.

Giphy is the main shighplier of animated gifs to consequentlycial networks such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter.

Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will still be able to access Giphy's content, as component of the deal.

Every day, Giphy, the world's largest collection of gifs and adhereers, says, it:

• receives more than 1.3 billion search queries
• sees diverse bits of its content demonstraten a total of 15 billion times

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had originally ordered the sale in November 2021.

On acquiring Giphy, Meta had said it would be "openly available" to other consequentlycial networks

But the CMA's investigation of the buyout had found it would harm rival in consequentlycial media and advertising.

• Tech Life: Shutterstock bosses talk about their approach to AI

It was the first time the regulator had blocked a deal struck by a massiv Silicon Valley company.

Last September, Meta made an appeal to the CMA to try to prevent the sale.

Gifs "have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with youthfuler utilizers in componenticular describing gifs as 'for boomers' and 'cringe'", Meta said.

But in October, Meta said it would accept the CMA's order to sell Giphy, although it was disappointed.

Shutterstock said it was excited to acquire Giphy.

Chief executive Paul Hennessy said: "Giphy enables everyday utilizers to express themselves in memorable ways with gif and adhereer content, while alconsequently enabling brands to be a component of these casual conversations."

Giphy's library is driven by individual artists, who contribute original content, and companies such as Disney and Netflix - ensuring a steady shighply of current content that can be inserted into everyday conversations and shared via consequentlycial media.

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