Getty Images said Tuesday. Agreed to merge. A cash-and-stock deal with its rival Shutterstock. Based on last night's closing share prices, the combined business is estimated to be worth $3.7 billion. This statement is confirmed. Early report From Bloomberg
Both companies offer stock photos and video files that can be licensed and reused. News organizations, film and record producers; advertising agencies; Commonly used by marketing companies and others.
Getty Images is the larger of the two companies, and its shareholders will own about 54.7% of the new business, while Shutterstock shareholders will own 45.3%. Getty Images owns the iStock and Unsplash brands. The company is called Getty Images.
As part of the deal, Shutterstock shareholders can decide to pay $28.80 per share or 13.67 shares of Getty Images, or a mix of both.
Today's move comes at a critical time, as artificial intelligence is making waves for the stock image industry. AI represents both an opportunity and a threat, as Getty Images licenses its content to AI companies to train their next-generation models. At the same time, MidJourney, its customers, to create images and videos that meet their needs. You can decide to use next-generation AI tools like OpenAI's Dall-E and Runway ML.
“Today's announcement marks an exciting transition for our companies, strengthening our financial foundation and opening up many opportunities to invest in the future, including enhancing our content offerings, expanding program coverage and delivering new technologies to better serve our customers.” Getty Images CEO Craig Peters (pictured above) said in a statement.
This integration may attract credibility scrutiny. It will be interesting to watch how the Trump administration plans to handle this deal in the coming months.