Meta UK complies with the order and sells Giphy to the stock image company for US$ 53 million | Technology

Stock photography company Shutterstock announced this Tuesday (23) that it has acquired animated image site Giphy da Meta for US$53 million (about R$264 million).

The UK antitrust regulator ordered Meta to sell Giphy last year, saying the deal would hinder competition Especially affecting Snapchat and Twitter.

oh Giphy has the world’s largest repository of animated imagesAlso known as GIFs, and stickers used on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Microsoft Teams.

The content, which includes official content from media companies such as Disney and Netflix, generates 15 billion daily impressions.

In 2020, Meta reportedly paid $400 million for GIF. A year later, The deal was challenged by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).For the first time a British regulator forced an American technology company to sell a company it had already acquired.

“This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock’s journey as an end-to-end creative platform,” said Paul Hennessy, Shutterstock chief executive.

Shutterstock said the deal with Giphy would give it access to about 1.7 billion daily users. Shares of the company rose as much as 4% in the premarket.