UK Refers Facebook Acquisition Of Giphy For In-Depth Probe

Britain on Thursday referred Facebook Inc’s acquisition of GIF website Giphy for an in-depth probe after Facebook told the country’s competition watchdog it would not be offering any concessions to address antitrust concerns.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week gave Facebook and Giphy five working days to offer proposals to address its concerns over their merger deal.

However, the CMA said on Thursday that Facebook had informed it last Thursday that it would not be offering any remedies to address its competition concerns.]

“We will continue to fully cooperate with the CMA’s investigation,” a Facebook spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Facebook, a social media company bought Giphy, a website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, in May last year to integrate it with its photo-sharing app, Instagram.