Asian Tech Press (Dec 01) -- The UK's antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said on Tuesday that it had determined that Meta's (formerly Facebook) acquisition of social media animation graphics company Giphy could harm competition in the market, and demanded that Meta sell Giphy, according to media reports.

Meta's acquisition of Giphy would reduce competition between social media platforms and could harm social media users and UK advertisers, said Stuart McIntosh, chairman of the CMA's Facebook-Giphy investigation. Requiring Facebook to sell Giphy protects millions of social media users and promotes competition and innovation in digital advertising. In response, Meta said that the company disagreed with the decision, evaluated it, and considered an appeal.

In May 2020, Meta announced the acquisition of GIF image search engine Giphy for $315 million, which raised concerns from the start from the UK regulator. Although the deal was still completed, the CMA had said in August this year that it might force Meta to abandon the agreement and sell all of Giphy's shares again.