Facebook buys GIPHY for $400 million

Facebook announced yesterday that it is acquiring GIPHY. The latter started in February 2013 as a search engine for GIFs and it was apparent that co-founders Alex Chung and Jace Cooke were on to something after they attracted one million users during GIPHY's first week. Soon, GIPHY was allowing users to post, embed, and share GIFs on Facebook.

Half of GIPHY's traffic comes from Facebook-owned apps with Instagram making up 50% of that figure. The other apps include WhatsApp, Messenger, and the Facebook app. After the transaction closes, people will still be able to upload GIFs, and developers and partners will still have access to GIPHY's APIs. More importantly, GIPHY's creative community will still be able to create the usual "great content."

While Facebook didn't announce the price of the transaction, Axios says that GIPHY cost Facebook $400 million. In 2014, Facebook closed on its purchase of messaging app WhatsApp; that purchase was paid for in Facebook stock and was originally valued at $19 billion. By the time the deal closed, a rally in Facebook's shares brought the price of the transaction to a stunning $21 billion. A couple of years before, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in what turned out to be one of the biggest steals in the history of technology.

Facebook says, "By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct. Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue. Together, we can make it easier for anyone to create and share their work with the world...GIFs and stickers give people meaningful and creative ways to express themselves. We see the positivity in how people use GIPHY in our products today, and we know that bringing the GIPHY team’s creativity and talent together with ours will only accelerate how people use visual communication to connect with each other."