Britain's competition regulator last year ordered Meta to
sell Giphy over fears that it could deny or limit competitors such as Snapchat
and Twitter access to the target's content.
Meta had reportedly paid $400 million for New York-based
Giphy in 2020. A year later the deal was challenged by Britain's Competition
and Markets Authority and its successful campaign was the first time a regulator
had forced a U.S. tech giant to sell an already acquired company.
Shares of Shutterstock, which expects the deal to close next
month, rose as much as 4 percent premarket.
The company said Giphy would add "minimal" revenue
this year and it would launch efforts to increase revenue from 2024.
"This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock's
journey as an end-to-end creative platform," said Shutterstock CEO Paul
Hennessy.
Giphy boasts of the world's largest repository of animated
images, popularly called GIFs, and web-based stickers which are used on
platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Microsoft Teams.
Its content, which also includes official submissions from
media firms such as Disney and Netflix, garners 15 billion daily impressions.
The Giphy deal will allow access to about 1.7 billion daily
users, Shutterstock said. © Reuters