Facebook to purchase Giphy for $400 million

Facebook has pulled out its pocketbook once more, acquiring popular GIF sharing platform Giphy for $400 million, reports said on Friday.

As per Axios who broke the story:

A source close to the situation says that the two companies first began talking prior to the pandemic, although that was more about a partnership than an acquisition.

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, Lerer Hippeau, IVP, DFJ Growth, GGV Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Its most recent private valuation was around $600 million.

Facebook has made savvy purchases in the past, buying up Instagram and WhatsApp to bolster its social reach. While GIPHY is nowhere as front-facing as those two platforms, it's a supplementary service that makes these platforms (and others like Twitter) attractive and fun to use.

With even Google buying up Tenor, it became inevitable that another GIF company would be snapped up by a tech giant given enough time, and Facebook is a better fit than most.

Instagram brought in $20 billion for Facebook last year