UK orders Meta to sell Giphy after failed appeal

LONDON — A British competition regulator on Tuesday ordered Facebook owner Meta to sell animated graphics startup Giphy in a final decision after a failed appeal by the US tech giant.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement that Giphy must be "sold off in its entirety," after ruling last year that the acquisition would hit competition and advertising.

It was the first time the British regulator had blocked a major digital acquisition, and it signaled a step change in its scrutiny of "big tech" companies.

Meta acquired Giphy for a reported $400 million in May 2020. Half of traffic to the GIF database's huge library of looping videos comes from Meta's platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Its GIFs are also popular with users of TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat, and the CMA was concerned Meta could limit access or force rivals to provide more user data. — Agence France-Presse