Stock photography company Shutterstock announced on Tuesday that it will acquire the animated image platform Giphy from Facebook parent company Meta.
“This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock’s journey as an end-to-end creative platform,” Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in June.
The $53 million all-cash deal represents a significant loss for Meta, which acquired Giphy for $315 million in 2020, meaning the company is selling it at a nearly $262 million loss.
Last year, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a final order to Meta to sell the animated image app over concerns it reduced competition, claiming that its ownership “creates a monopoly” and limits other social media platforms’ access to Giphy’s content, Reuters reported at the time.
Related: FTC Says Facebook Violated 2020 Privacy Order, Proposes More Protections for Teens and Children
The first order was in the fall of 2021, which Meta appealed, and the final order was in October 2022, when Meta complied with the ruling and agreed to drop any further appeals. In January, the CMA gave Meta a timeline to sell Giphy. The timeline was likely a six-month window, TechCrunch reported, meaning that Meta was under pressure as the window neared its close.
Entrepreneur has reached out to Meta for comment.
Meta has faced other privacy-related pressures from the UK. On Monday, the tech giant was slammed with a €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine for violating European Union privacy policies by transferring personal data from European users to the U.S. Meta addressed the fine in a blog post, stating that it intends to appeal the ruling.
