Giphy pops for FB

Social media giant pays $400M for database

Facebook on Friday announced that it had acquired the massive animated-image database Giphy in a deal that’s worth a reported $400 million.

New York-based Giphy — whose trove of looping clips of cute cats and other animals, bizarre cartoon characters and mugging celebrities are popular on social media and messaging apps — will remain its own brand under the deal, but will become more tightly integrated into Facebook’s apps.

“GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves,” Instagram Vice President of Product Vishal Shah said in a blog post.

Among the popular GIFs on the platform are loops of Zuckerberg himself testifying on Capitol Hill, slowly drinking a glass of water and saying things like “That was a big mistake. And it was my mistake.”

The acquisition, first reported by Axios, will let Giphy continue to manage and operate its own library, according to Facebook. Giphy’s GIF library, will still be accessible to other social networks like Twitter.

“People will still be able to upload GIFs; developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to Giphy’s APIs; and Giphy’s creative community will still be able to create great content,” Shah said.

Shares of Facebook were up 1.2 percent Friday afternoon, trading at $209.19.