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Shutterstock on Tuesday announced to acquire leading GIF library and search engine Giphy from Meta for $53 million in a cash deal, after the UK's antitrust authority issued an order for Meta to sell Giphy on the grounds that the merger reduced dynamic competition.

In a significant decision, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK in October last year ordered Meta (formerly Facebook) to sell off online database and search engine Giphy it acquired for $315 million.

Giphy's vast library of GIFs and stickers draws more than 1.3 billion search queries on a daily basis and powers more than 15 billion daily media impressions.

"This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock's journey as an end-to-end creative platform," said Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy.

"Shutterstock is in the business of helping people and brands tell their stories. Through the Giphy acquisition, we are extending our audience touch points beyond primarily professional marketing and advertising use cases and expanding into casual conversations," he added.

Giphy's content serves as a critical ingredient in text- and message-based conversations on platforms such as Meta, other social media platforms such as TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat and team collaboration platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, in addition to integrations with most mobile devices.

It will expand Shutterstock's content library to include GIFs and stickers used in more casual conversations - GIFs have over 75 per cent positive sentiment among consumers

Giphy is expected to add minimal revenue in 2023 with focused monetization efforts taking place over the course of 2024. The transaction is targeted to close in June 2023, subject to customary closing conditions.