In 2020, Meta purchased the GIF -sharing platform, GIPHY for around $ 400 million to facilitate the integration of their GIF offerings on the Facebook platform. But this is seen as unpopular by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK, and Facebook was instructed to sell GIPHY in November last year.
Recently, it appears that a UK court has ordered for the sale of the company to be postponed for now, although five of the six allegations released were agreed by the court, the latter allegation is seen as not strong enough as prosecutors did not tell further about Snapchat's takeover of Gfycat .
This is seen as important as this lack of information makes it difficult for Meta to develop an argument about the GIPHY acquisition and how it is not anti-competitive.
Previously, the acquisition of GIPHY by Meta was seen as anti-competitive as it was seen as a way for the company to monopolize the use of GIPHY. It was also reported that Facebook had shut down the advertising division of GIPHY when the acquisition was sealed.
With this latest decision, the CMA is said to be releasing a new report, and Meta will have the opportunity to review the report soon.