INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook may have to sell GIF website GiphyBritain might require Facebook to sell GIF website Giphy after the country's competition
regulator said on Thursday its investigation found the deal between the two companies would hurt the display advertising market.Facebook,
the world's largest social media company, bought Giphy, a website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, in May last year to
integrate it with its photo-sharing app, Instagram
The deal was pegged at $400 million by Axios.The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began a probe into the deal in January, and in
April referred the deal to an in-depth investigation."Giphy's takeover could see Facebook withdrawing GIFs from competing platforms or
requiring more user data in order to access them
It also removes a potential challenger to Facebook," said Stuart McIntosh, chair of the independent investigation for the CMA
Another major provider of GIFs is Google's Tenor.The CMA found that, before the Facebook deal, Giphy was considering expanding its paid
advertising services offered in the United States to other countries, including the UK
However, Facebook terminated Giphy's ad partnerships following the deal, according to the regulator."We disagree with the CMA's preliminary
findings, which we do not believe to be supported by the evidence
As we have demonstrated, this merger is in the best interest of people and businesses in the UK - and around the world," a Facebook
spokesperson said.The representative added that the California-based company would continue to work with the CMA
Giphy declined to comment.This is not the first time the CMA has raised concerns about major deals
The $9.2 billion eBay-Adevinta deal has caught its attention, and the CMA has asked the new owners of supermarket chain Asda to fix fuel
competition concerns.The watchdog said that it has engaged with other agencies reviewing the deal to help the CMA's investigation, and is
now inviting comments from interested parties by Sept
2 for its provisional findings.