UK Regulators Force Facebook to Sell Part of Its Business

Britain’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has successfully forced Facebook (now known as Meta) to sell a part of its business, as global scrutiny of alleged anticompetitive practices in the tech industry continues.

Facebook has been forced to sell Giphy, an online database of animated GIFs widely used by social networks, marking the first time the company has been forced to sell part of its business.

Via the New York Times:

Meta purchased Giphy in 2020 for $315 million, giving it ownership of one of the largest hubs for the looping short-form videos that are a common form of internet communication. But British regulators said the deal reduced competition in social media and in the display advertising market, an area Meta dominates and where Giphy was beginning to expand before the deal.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority first ordered Meta to sell Giphy last year, but the judgment was appealed to a tribunal, which recently sided with the government. On Tuesday, Meta said that it would accept the British ruling as “the final word on the matter” and would sell Giphy. Meta said the sale will apply globally, not just in Britain.

Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook and Google spent years acquiring companies that either solidified their position in the market, or promised to be potential rivals.

Other prominent acquisitions by Facebook include the encrypted instant messaging service WhatsApp, and image-sharing social network Instagram.

In 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms, amid a wider effort to rebrand the company. The name Meta signaled founder Mark Zuckerberg’s shift of focus to the virtual reality metaverse, a decision that has come under increasing criticism as user activity in the company’s flagship VR product, Horizon Worlds, remains dismal.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.