GIF not loading: Facebook's acquisition of Giphy just got blocked

11/30/21 7:00PM

Speaking of Facebook, this week the company was told it wasn't allowed to rule the world of GIFs. The UK's competition regulator (CMA) announced yesterday that Facebook (technically, Meta) will have to unwind its ~$400m acquisition of Giphy, just 18 months after the deal was announced.

‍Competition in GIFs

‍The CMA ultimately decided that Facebook's ownership of Giphy could stifle competition in social media. The most obvious way that would play out would be if Facebook stopped users on competing platforms from using Giphy content.

Whether a lack of killer GIFs would really harm Facebook's competitors isn't the most interesting point from this news (maybe it would?). The most interesting thing is that regulators are finally doing what they have talked a lot about: blocking big tech acquisitions.

The only issue is that Facebook — like much of big tech — makes more acquisitions than you might have realized, 93 in fact since the company was founded. Some, like WhatsApp or Instagram make the headlines, or go on to be huge household brands or products in their own right — but most don't. Most are small deals, where Facebook acquires a core team that might have an innovative product, piece of technology or high-quality individuals — and those deals are much harder for regulators to keep tabs on than big transformative deals.

Rani Molla14h

OpenAI’s models are officially coming to Amazon

Amazon is finally getting in on the hottest ticket in tech.

After Microsoft announced yesterday that it has agreed to give up its exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s models, Amazon, as expected, will start offering them to customers — something Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman says users have been asking for “for a really long time.” Some models are available now in preview, and the most powerful GPT versions will show up “in the coming weeks.”

This is a big shift in the AI cloud wars. Microsoft’s early bet on OpenAI gave Azure an edge by locking up the most in-demand models. Now that exclusivity is gone, Amazon and other competitors can finally offer them too, closing a key gap and competing more directly for AI customers.

Amazon Set to Sell OpenAI Tech After Microsoft Cedes Exclusivity

Claire Yubin Oh17h

Ship-tracking app surges as Iran war continues

As Middle East peace talks stretch on, with Tehran reportedly offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade and the war ends, the owner of shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic revealed that the app has gained millions of new users since the conflict began.

MarineTraffic’s user count jumped to 8.5 million this April, up from 3.5 million a year ago, the cofounder of its parent company, Kpler, said in an interview with the Financial Times. Paid subscribers, often workers within companies and governments looking for more data on supply chains and commodities trading, rose 11,000 in the same period.

Kpler, which also owns shipping intelligence platform FleetMon, draws its data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System, satellites, and more than 500 people on-site, like port terminal operators.

Per Appfigures data, MarineTraffic is estimated to have raked in almost $1 million across March and April in app revenue (through April 27), more than double the ~$346,500 from the same months last year. Across the full year, Kpler expects to earn between $300 million and $400 million in annual recurring revenues.

Rani Molla

pedal to the meta

18h

Meta could be getting ready to post its highest revenue growth since 2021

Meta’s outlook and analyst estimates suggest more than 30% revenue growth in Q1.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visits U.S. Capitol for Senate meetings

Tom Jones22h

Google will supply AI models to Pentagon in classified deal, per The Information

Google has become the latest tech company to ink an agreement to supply the Department of Defense (War) with AI, having reportedly closed a classified deal that allows the Pentagon to use its AI for “any lawful government purpose,” according to The Information.

The Information initially reported talks between the Alphabet-owned company and the US government around two weeks ago, following the messy breakdown of the relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration — and the rushed OpenAI deal that took its place.

The move has reportedly sparked opposition among Google employees, with The Washington Post reporting that over 600 workers signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai to ask him to bar the Defense Department from using the company’s AI models for any classified work.