> Regulators also determined that the deal was uncompetitive because it shut down Giphy's advertising business, therefore eliminating Giphy’s competition to Facebook's ad business.
To be fair, Giphy was not a serious competitor to FB's ad business.
Their (Meta nee Facebook) platform really only has Google and Amazon as real competition in the ad market, and potentially Apple and TikTok in the future.
It wasn't yet. The regulators seems to be annoyed by Facebook buying and shutting down potential competitors before they've had a chance to grow into real competition.
> The CMA found that Giphy’s ad services would have been able to compete with Facebook’s own display advertising services, while also encouraging innovation from other social media sites and advertisers.
> Facebook shut down Giphy’s advertising services at the time of the merger. The CMA said this is a cause for concern, especially because Facebook controls nearly half of the £7 billion ($9.4 billion) display ad market in the U.K.
> Stuart McIntosh, chair of the independent inquiry group carrying out the investigation, said in a statement Tuesday that the deal has already removed a potential challenger in the display ad market.
I just don't get it, tbh. How much money did Giphy ever make from ads? I find it really difficult to believe that this could ever be material to either Giphy's revenue or to the overall ad market.
Chalk this up to (yet another) weird decision from the CMA.
> Regulators also determined that the deal was uncompetitive because it shut down Giphy's advertising business, therefore eliminating Giphy’s competition to Facebook's ad business.