What happened
Meta Platforms (META -1.40%) had one of those rather directionless days on the market Tuesday. A mix of positive and negative news emanated from the social media giant's latest legal tussle, and investors couldn't really decide whether the good outweighed the bad or vice versa. As a result, Meta's stock swung from a high of 1.5% over Monday's close to a nearly 2% decline, finally ending the session down about 0.5%.
So what
Investors have been cool recently on tech stocks in general, Meta included. Compounding that on Tuesday, the company won a legal victory across the Atlantic -- of sorts.
Meta prevailed on five of the six grounds of a legal appeal in the U.K. The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled in favor of the company, which was appealing the reversal of its acquisition of animated images site Giphy.
Last year, that country's Competition and Markets Authority ruled that Meta had to sell Giphy due to concerns about the deal limiting competition and harming rivals. But the Competition Appeal Tribunal supported nearly all grounds of Meta's appeal of the decision, on the basis that the regulator had not followed certain required procedures in making it.
Despite Meta's victory, the Tribunal could still quash its decision and send the matter back to the Competition and Markets Authority. In that eventuality, if the latter organization properly follows the required procedures the second time around, it could still move to block the acquisition.
Now what
Meta isn't entirely out of the British legal woods in terms of its Giphy deal, but at the end of the day, it wasn't a game-changing acquisition for the company. Unlike certain legal decisions, this one is a bit fuzzy, which explains why the markets were unclear about whether it'll ultimately wind up a win for Meta.
