The British Markets and Competition Authority requires Meta (Facebook, Instagram) to resell its subsidiary Giphy, specializing in the accommodation of animated images. The acquisition, for an amount estimated at $ 400 million, had been announced in 2020.
Le Monde with AFP
Meta, parent company of the Facebook social network, failed to reverse the decision of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the British market and competition authority, and is forced to resell its subsidiary Giphy.
The market and competition authority has announced in a press release published Tuesday October 18 that she maintained her position, originally formulated in August 2021 following an investigation relating to the risks that Giphy’s acquisition by Meta was weighing On competition in the animated image accommodation sector.
If, in July 2022, British justice had rejected most of the arguments raised on appeal by Meta, the CMA had nevertheless, initially launched a new examination of its initial decision, before finally maintain its conclusions.
The American company declares itself “disappointed”, but promises to comply with it and work in collaboration with the CMA on “the divestment of Giphy” while opening the door to possible other acquisitions in this area.
The authority considers that the acquisition of Giphy by Meta would deprive the British market for online advertising of a competitor potential, while Meta already has a dominant position with just over 50 % of the shares Steps. window As the Guardian writes, the authority stressed that Facebook has been quick to put an end to projects to extend the online advertising activity of Giphy after the buyout: initially present on the American online advertising market, Giphy planned before the acquisition by Meta to extend its activity to other countries including the United Kingdom. The project had been stopped net by the new buyers.
In October 2021, the CMA had already inflicted a sanction of 50.5 million pounds sterling (59.5 million euros) in Meta for having continued the integration of Giphy launched by authority. Meta planned in particular to incorporate Giphy’s services within its Instagram social network, devoted to image sharing.
Created in 2013 and based in New York, Giphy is, with Gfycat (acquired by the Snapchat social network in 2020) and Tenor (owned by Google), one of the main GIF sharing platforms, claiming more 700 million daily users.