Facebook owner Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

The Competition and Markets Authority told Meta in November that the only way to resolve competition concerns was to dispose of Giphy, the largest supplier of animated gifs to social networks such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, which it acquired two years ago for $400m (£290m).

The Facebook parent company, which also owns Instagram and the messaging service WhatsApp, accounts for 73% of user time spent on social media in the UK, the CMA said.

The CMA said a takeover would remove a potential competitor from the £7bn UK display advertising market, where Facebook is the biggest player accounting for about half the market.

The CMA and Meta have been at loggerheads through the investigation process.