Shutterstock Inc., a partner for transformative brands, digital media and marketing companies, has agreed to acquire Giphy Inc., a collection of GIFs and stickers, from Meta Platforms Inc.
The deal comes approximately seven months after the U.K.’s antitrust authority issued a final order for Meta to sell Giphy, saying that the merger reduced dynamic competition. The Competition and Markets Authority had ordered the sale in November of 2021, but the appeals process held things up. The CMA also had the final say on who Meta could sell Giphy to.
Giphy’s content is used for test and message-based conversations on platforms such as Meta, other social media platforms such as TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat and team collaboration platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. Giphy’s library is fueled by both individual artists who contribute original content and media partners such as NBC, Disney, Netflix, NFL, MLB, and NBA.
“Through the Giphy acquisition, we are extending our audience touch points beyond primarily professional marketing and advertising use cases and expanding into casual conversations,” states Paul Hennessy, Shutterstock CEO. “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.”
CapM Advisors acted as financial advisor to Shutterstock in connection with the transaction.