The UK’s antitrust regulator is reportedly set to block Meta’s purchase of Giphy
The UK market competition and competition (CMA) are expected to reverse the purchase of Facebook’s parent giphy in the coming days, according to the Financial Times. If so, it will mark the first time that the state competition regulator has canceled the main technology acquisition.
Meta (or Facebook, at that time) was announced in May 2020 that he bought the GIF platform with the aim of rolling it into Instagram. The report set an agreement price at $ 400 million.
But CMA raises concerns about acquisitions. It opened an investigation into the agreement next month. Regulators ruled in August that the agreement could prevent rivals such as Tiktok and Snapchat from accessing the Giphy library from GIF. He also said the agreement could remove potential competitors for Meta in the British advertising sector. Meta ends the gyphy advertising partnership, which according to CMA stops the company’s advertising expansion, including to other countries.
Watchdog suggested meta can be forced to sell services. A CMA spokesman told Engadget that it had not published a final decision, but had until December 1 to do so.
Meta previously thought that because Giphy did not have operations in the UK, CMA did not have jurisdiction in this case. In addition, he claimed that paid gyphy services cannot be classified as display ads in accordance with the definition of CMA markets.
The problem between Meta and CMA grew more controversial in October, when the company’s finite authority was almost $ 70 million to violate the rules related to the agreement. CMA said it was the first time he determined the company to violate one of his commands by consciously refusing to report all the information needed. “
