Meta is selling Giphy at a loss to Shutterstock for $53 million after buying the social media animated images company in a 2020 deal reported to be worth between $315 million and $400 million.
The UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, issued a final order in October 2022 to Meta requiring the social media company to sell Giphy on the grounds that Meta’s acquisition of Giphy unlawfully reduced competition.
Shutterstock is acquiring Giphy, the world’s largest library of GIFs and stickers used by 1.7 billion people daily, from Meta in cash.
Giphy’s content will remain available on Meta’s platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – through an API agreement, Shutterstock noted.
The company retained its full-year revenue guidance and said it expects Giphy to add minimal revenue in 2023, with monetization efforts planned to take place during 2024.
"This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock's journey as an end-to-end creative platform," said Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy.
“We plan to leverage Shutterstock's unique capabilities in content and metadata monetization, generative AI, studio production and creative automation to enable the commercialization of our GIF library as we roll this offering out to customers."
The acquisition is expected to close in June.
Shutterstock’s shares rose 1.3% to US$54.65 on the news, while Meta’s stock was up 0.2% at US$248.91.
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