Investing.com -- Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) has agreed to sell its Giphy business to stock content platform Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) in a $53 million transaction, according to a news release from Shutterstock on Tuesday.
The deal will see New York-based Shutterstock fund its acquisition of Giphy, a search engine for continuously-looping hyper-short animated content known as GIFs, through cash on hand and an existing revolving credit facility. Shutterstock said the deal is expected to add "minimal revenue" in 2023, adding that it will focus on monetization efforts over the course of the next year.
"We plan to leverage Shutterstock's unique capabilities in content and metadata monetization, generative AI, studio production and creative automation to enable the commercialization of our GIF library as we roll this offering out to customers," said Shutterstock Chief Executive Officer Paul Hennessy.
Under the terms of the agreement, users of Meta's platform, which includes popular social media apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, will still be able to access Giphy's content. Meta first bought Giphy in 2020, but the purchase later came under scrutiny from the U.K.'s competition watchdog.
The purchase is targeted to close in June 2023, Shutterstock noted.
Meta did not provide a comment in the release.