The deal
Shutterstock announced today its definitive agreement to buy Giphy for $53 million, seven months after Meta said it would accept the CMA’s ruling that it must divest Giphy. Shutterstock said the deal is expected to close in June and is “subject to customary closing conditions.”
The deal should assuage trepidation from Giphy, which encouraged the CMA to enact behavioral ordinances rather than force Meta to sell Giphy. The animated images company feared GIFs just weren’t as cool as they were in 2020, and so the platform would mostly attract “weak or inappropriate” suitors.
“User sentiment towards GIFs on social media shows that they have fallen out of fashion as a content form, with younger users in particular describing GIFs as ‘for boomers’ and ‘cringe,’” Giphy told the CMA in August.
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