Meta officially announced that will sell Giphythe platform dedicated to GIFs that he bought in 2020. A decision that comes after the insistence ofCompetition and Markets Authority. And after a court confirmed its view that the acquisition could harm its competitors and remove a potential competitor in advertising.
Giphy: Meta will cancel its acquisition of Giphy
“We are disappointed with the CMA’s decision, but we accept today’s ruling as the last word on the matter.” So did a spokesperson for Meta know about the issue of the sale of Giphy. In reality, is the first time that a regulator forced a US tech giant to sell an already acquired company. And this marks a new determination on the part of the authority to scrutinize digital agreements. On the other hand, it is not the first time that Meta ends up in the sights of the authorities. At the beginning of October, the US Antitrust filed a lawsuit against the company’s acquisition of the virtual reality content producer Within Unlimited Incstating that it would “tend to create a monopoly” in the market for fitness apps dedicated to virtual reality.
On the other hand, the European Union has been particularly active in trying to curb the excessive power of Big Tech. The British regulator, in fact, he had blocked the Giphy agreement – worth 400 million dollars – as early as November 2021, worried that Meta could deny or limit access to the platform by competitors such as Snapchat and Twitter. Shortly thereafter, the CMA noted that UK users search for 1 billion GIFs per month on Giphy, and spend 73% of their time on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – all owned by Meta -. The situation, therefore, seemed more than compromising.
“This agreement would significantly reduce competition in two markets. It has already led to the removal of a potential challenger in the UK display ad market, while also giving Meta the ability to further increase its substantial market power in social media. The only way this can be dealt with is the sale of Giphy ”.