Time to fire up the popcorn.gif… Facebook’s purchase of Giphy is turning into a thriller. Yesterday the UK’s antitrust regulator ordered Meta (formerly Facebook) to sell Giphy, the GIF-sharing platform that FB acquired last year for $315M. Refresher: Giphy doesn't own the rights to the vids used in GIFs, so it made money by showing sponsored results to searches (you search "glow up" and get a glossy mouth with Maybelline branding).

• 2 whammies: Regulators say the merger reduced ad competition by killing Giphy’s ad service in the US and hurt social competition by giving Meta control over Snap, Twitter, and TikTok’s access to GIFs.
• 4 options: Meta can appeal, sell Giphy, leave the UK, or get fined. The UK already fined Meta $70M for failing to cooperate with the investigation. The social giant said it’s considering an appeal.

Zuck never Meta tougher regulator… The company formerly known as Facebook has received plenty of antitrust criticism before, but this lawsuit is unprecedented because it involves a UK regulator trying to break up a completed tech merger between American companies. Still, global regulators have targeted US tech giants before. A few examples:

• London regulators ordered Uber to shut down in 2019, but Uber won the legal battle.
• Australia passed a law to make Facebook and Google pay for news content, and both eventually struck deals with Aussie media companies after getting the legislation amended. Oz is expected to announce a new inquiry into Big Tech companies today.

Wool shoes and hydro flasks… Throw in a Patagonia, and you’ve got yourself a tech uniform. Allbirds’ eco-friendly shoes have become a Silicon Valley staple. Think: $98 kicks made from wool, sugarcane, and South African eucalyptus pulp. Shares of the direct-to-consumer company have fallen 33% since going public last month. Allbirds’ first public earnings report didn’t wow investors, and the stock dropped 6% after hours.

• Step up: Allbirds' quarterly sales rose 33%, to $63M, thanks to strong demand for its new athleisure clothing line and fresh sneaker styles (like limited-edition Runner Fluffs).
• Step down: Allbirds’ loss nearly doubled from last year, to $14M, as it splurged to expand its brick-and-mortar stores to 31 locations.

Plastic-bottle shoestrings… and carbon-negative soles. Allbirds has put sustainability at the center of its business, attracting eco-conscious Zillennials. While the average pair of sneakers creates 12 kilograms of CO2 emissions, Allbirds claims its shoes produce only 7. Its ESG pledges include creating 100% renewable energy for its production facilities by 2025.

• Younger consumers are almost 2X as likely to consider ESG issues when making purchasing decisions, compared to consumers over the age of 38.
• That’s why companies like Beyond Meat, Patagonia, Tom’s, and Allbirds have put eco-friendly messaging and materials at their core.

• Cron: While scientists race to understand Omicron’s threat, vax leaders are sharing early predictions: The creator of Pfizer’s Covid vax said Omicron is unlikely to cause severe illness in vaxxed people, while Moderna’s CEO said it could make shots much less effective.
• Pillin: An FDA advisory panel narrowly endorsed the use of Merck’s Covid-treatment pill, despite unanswered questions over its effectiveness and safety.
• DeTweet: Twitter said it won’t allow users to share non-public photos or videos of other people without their consent.
• Cryptic: Following reports that India would ban all private cryptocurrencies, the country clarified that it’s closely monitoring crypto ads — not weighing a ban (for now).
• Cloudy: Amazon’s AWS, aka the world’s biggest cloud provider, launched new chips to help customers beat the cost of computing chips from Intel and Nvidia.
• Musky: Elon told SpaceX employees that the lack of progress made in developing Raptor rocket engines has created a “genuine risk of bankruptcy.”

• Earnings expected from: Snowflake, CrowdStrike, Okta, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Royal Bank of Canada

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Google, Twitter, Apple, Uber, Snap, Pfizer, Amazon, and Moderna

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