Getty Images announced Consolidation plan with its rival Shutterstock in a cash and stock deal. The combined entity is expected to be worth $3.7 billion based on yesterday's closing share price. Confirm this announcement Previous reporting From Bloomberg.
Both companies offer stock photos and video footage that can be licensed and reused. This content is commonly used by news agencies, film and documentary makers, advertising agencies, marketing agencies and more.
Getty Images is the larger company of the two, as Getty Images shareholders will own about 54.7% of the new entity while Shutterstock shareholders will own 45.3% of the company (Getty Images also owns the iStock and Unsplash brands). The company name will be just Getty Images.
As part of the deal, Shutterstock shareholders can choose to receive $28.80 per share in cash or 13.67 shares of Getty Images, or a mix of the two.
Today's move comes at an important time as artificial intelligence continues to shake things up for the stock image industry AI represents both an opportunity and a threat, as Getty Images may choose to license their content to AI companies to train their next-generation models.
At the same time, Getty Images customers can choose to use generative AI tools such as Midjourney, OpenAI's Dal-e, and Runway ML to create images and videos tailored to their needs.
“Today's announcement is exciting and transformative for our companies, unlocking multiple opportunities to strengthen our financial foundation and invest in the future – including growing our content offerings, expanding event coverage and delivering new technologies to better serve our customers,” Getty Images CEO Craig Peters (pictured above) said in a statement.
This merger will likely draw antitrust scrutiny. It will be interesting to see how the incoming Trump administration plans to handle this deal in the coming weeks and months.