Facebook is buying Giphy in deal valued at $400 million

• In the future, everything will be eaten by Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is reported to be acquiring Giphy in a deal valued at roughly $400 million. The GIF-sharing service was valued at ~$600 million in its latest funding round.

Giphy will keep its branding and will be integrated with Instagram.

We’re so excited to share some news – GIPHY has been acquired by @Facebook and is joining the @Instagram team!

Read more here: https://t.co/U6AYQ16cEQ pic.twitter.com/ATjEY1VK3K

— GIPHY (@GIPHY) May 15, 2020

Welcome to the family, @GIPHY! https://t.co/RgWErmc5Ym pic.twitter.com/8EQH5rxWKG

— Facebook (@Facebook) May 15, 2020

Axios was first to break the news:

• Giphy is expected to retain its own branding, with its primary integration to come via Facebook's Instagram platform.
• New York-based Giphy had raised around $150 million in VC funding since its 2013 inception, from firms like Betaworks (which incubated the company), Lerer Hippeau, IVP, DFJ Growth, GGV Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Its most recent private valuation was around $600 million.
• Yes, but: Facebook is facing enormous blowback over its previous acquisitions, which means that this deal, however small by comparison, is likely to face a lot of antitrust scrutiny by regulators. The tech giant is currently under investigation by federal and state lawmakers for antitrust.

Read more:
Scoop: Facebook to buy Giphy for $400 million
[via techmeme, reporting by Dan Primack, Kia Kokalitcheva, Sara Fischer]

And related reporting:
Facebook's purchase of Giphy gives FB insight into how and where gifs are shared outside of its own apps, including device IDs and keystrokes in Giphy tools

Facebook’s acquisition of GIPHY is yet another attempt to dominate the market & taunt our competition laws. Antitrust enforcers at the DOJ & FTC must stand up & make sure that the COVID-19 pandemic is not a pretense for corporate behemoths to prey on struggling startups. https://t.co/UqKkHCPUvp

— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) May 15, 2020

Now that Giphy has been acquired by FB, many have reached out to ask whether we should be concerned about Giphy search in Signal.

Signal already uses a privacy preserving approach to prevent gif search providers from receiving user data:https://t.co/PhfdHb9aJ0

— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) May 15, 2020

My analysis: With the Giphy buy, Facebook will get a ton of insight into how people are using Twitter, iMessage, Slack, TikTok, etc. And that's why it's worth it to buy them, not just invest. https://t.co/GhnVt00msF

— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) May 15, 2020

everything must be owned by five companies https://t.co/Y2kfKHnhEM

— @alexhern (@alexhern) May 15, 2020

this is a good thread on the strategic value of FB buying Giphy

funny to think that they can keep recreating the onavo acquisition in the future, always keeping an eye on the competition https://t.co/YvHkXNFiIw

— rat king (@MikeIsaac) May 15, 2020

Facebook just bought the world’s largest archive of DMCA takedown requests. The due diligence memo must have been awesome. https://t.co/sXcdd2023b

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) May 15, 2020