Antitrust Enforcers Should Block the Facebook-Giphy Merger, and Investigate Google for Anti-Competitive Behavior

May 15, 2020 Press Release

For Immediate Release: May 15, 2020

Press Contact: Robyn Shapiro, rshapiro@economicliberties.us

 

Antitrust Enforcers Should Block the Facebook-Giphy Merger, and Investigate Google for Anti-Competitive Behavior

Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to reports that Facebook plans to acquire Giphy for $400 million:

“The Facebook-Giphy merger is just the latest example of the Federal Trade Commission standing by while Facebook and Google centralize control over online communications,” said Economic Liberties Executive Director Sarah Miller. “Over the last few years, Google bought a gif platform, Tenor, and then integrated it into its dominant search engine, destroying Giphy’s business model and a market it created.”

“Now, Facebook is here to pick up the wreckage, and become even more powerful. Merging with Giphy will allow Facebook to further undermine its competitors, including Twitter, Slack, and Reddit, who reply on Giphy’s API and the broader digital ecosystem,” added Miller. “It’s time for the FTC to investigate and block this acquisition, for the Department of Justice to investigate Google for anti-competitive behavior, and for Congress to pass a merger prohibition.”

A full list of Facebook’s 83 unchallenged acquisitions is below. Giphy will be the 84th.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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Economic Liberties works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. AELP believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.