If the government forces you to reverse an acquisition of an asset that loses money in isolation, that's not just business. That's a populist government intervention without any sound financial reasoning. If Giphy had filed a Chapter 11 in the US and Company Voluntary Arrangements in the UK, to be then bought by FB, would the UK government be even scrutinizing this?

In this case this sets precedent that no other social media operation can buy Giphy. Who else could buy it and somehow make it work as a losing money asset in that case?

This is essentially the government saying: "you have to sell this back to someone but you cannot sell it to other social media companies, so you probably have to sell it for pennies to some private equity or shut it down". In what free market economy does that make sense at all?

Luckily FB can afford to lose 400MM, but what a horrible precedent this sets for the M&A activity in the tech industry.