The Facebook group Meta will sell the clip platform Giphy again after the final decision of British antitrust authorities. After a second examination, the competition authority CMA came to the conclusion that the group had to part with the company that had already been taken over in 2020. A new buyer for Giphy must be approved by the CMA.
The antitrust authorities had already instructed Meta in November last year to sell Giphy again. The group, on the other hand, went to court – and that ordered a new examination in the summer because the CMA had made procedural errors. According to the new report, Meta gave up resistance. One is disappointed, but accepts the decision as the last word on it, said a spokesman. Meta will continue to consider acquisitions to bring innovation to more people in the UK and around the world.
The CMA sees the merger as a risk, among other things, that Meta could make it more difficult for Facebook and Instagram rivals to integrate Giphy’s animated images. The group can demand that Giphy customers such as Tiktok, Twitter or Snapchat share more customer data with them to access the gifs. The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) emphasized that Giphy was also a competitor for the Facebook group in the online advertising market until the takeover. The merger weakens competition between online services in Great Britain. A sale is the only way to allay the concerns.
Meta had already incorporated Giphy into the Instagram photo service in May 2020. The purchase price is said to have amounted to more than 300 million dollars. (dpa)