GIPHY is owned by Shutterstock (the United States, NYSE: SSTK), which acquired the brand on 23 May 2023 for $53 million from Meta.[1][2] Before Shutterstock, GIPHY was owned by Meta from 2020 to 2023.[3]
Evidence: Shutterstock, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-17, SEC EDGAR, 17 February 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
GIPHY is the largest library of animated GIFs and supplies the search built into most messaging apps. Meta bought it in 2020, was ordered by the British competition regulator to sell it, and did so in 2023 for a reported $53 million against a purchase price of around $315 million.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Shutterstock ownership tree →
The 18 brands in video platforms on Brandtree belong to 13 owners. The largest is Kuaishou, with 2.
Shutterstock is a publicly listed company headquartered in New York, New York, United States, founded in 2003. Brandtree records 1 brand under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: SSTK.
Shutterstock licenses stock photography, video and music, and was founded in 2003 by a photographer who could not find a market for his own images. It bought Giphy from Meta in 2023 for a fraction of what Meta had paid, because a competition regulator had ordered the sale.
Shutterstock: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; GIPHY is not one of them.
Meta sold Giphy to Shutterstock for a reported $53 million, about a sixth of what it had paid three years earlier, to comply with the divestiture ordered by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Meta acquired Giphy for a reported $315 million without notifying the British competition regulator in advance, which it was not required to do. The Competition and Markets Authority opened an inquiry after the fact and ultimately ordered the acquisition unwound.
The Competition and Markets Authority ordered Meta to sell Giphy, a transaction that had already completed, after finding the acquisition harmed competition in display advertising and in the supply of animated images. Meta appealed, lost on the substance, and sold Giphy to Shutterstock for a small fraction of what it had paid. Unwinding a completed acquisition is rare.
The parent company of GIPHY is Shutterstock, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
No. GIPHY is owned by Shutterstock, not Meta. Meta owned GIPHY from 2020 until 2023.
Yes. GIPHY originated in the United States in 2013 and its owner, Shutterstock, is also headquartered in the United States.
Shutterstock completed its acquisition of GIPHY on 23 May 2023, after announcing the deal on 23 May 2023. The deal was valued at $53 million.
Before Shutterstock, GIPHY was owned by Meta from 2020 until 2023.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, GIPHY is still owned by Shutterstock. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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