UK BANKS FINANCE GETTY SALE

• UK BANKS FINANCE GETTY SALE! – Getty Images' board has recommended to shareholders a $2.4 billion buy-out offer. This is the sale to private equity the corporation had been seeking. Getty is as good as sold! The private equity firm Hellman & Friedman will take Getty out of public ownership by offering shareholders a 55% premium on the pre-sale share price. The bid is enabled by financial backing from Barclays Capital, GE Commercial Finance and RBS Greenwich Capital. [expand story >>>]

Getty is striving with the challenge of adapting. Its business model has been disrupted by the digital and Internet revolutions. Its share price has been taking a hammering on the public market. Public investors have seen the problems in the corporation's traditional business only too clearly, and the promise of its emerging microstock endeavour dimly if at all. The Getty board bet private equity would be less blinkered, and they bet right. There had been some speculation that, given the current US credit squeeze, private investors might find it hard to get finance for the buy-out. But investment banks with origins in the UK, in a syndicate led by Barclays Capital, sallied in and won the deal.

Related Stories:

photoweek/2008/01/getty-is-for-sale [add comment]

GETTY IS FOR SALE!

Getty Is For Sale! The New York Times last week broke a story that Getty Images may attempt to sell itself off in an auction which is to close in the next couple of days. If the story stands up, the target buyers are Private Equity firms. However, as the Times pointed out, Private Equity works by financing its acquisitions with massive debt. The current credit squeeze could mean the stock agency may fail to attract a buyer. Getty shares fell 47 per cent in the last full year, and while the giant is by no means stricken, it certainly has to strive to adapt. It's business model has been disrupted by the continuing digital revolution. Striking at the heart of Getty's way of making money is the World Wide Web, with its ability to massively aggregate the supply of - and demand for - digital images. The web opens the market to a mass of new participants, and enables ultra-low transaction costs. As the Times summed it up, it allows clients to find images more easily, for less money. Stock as we knew it, it seems, has been blown to bits.

Stock Artists Withdraw Their Images!

2 weeks ago, Getty Images announced the launch of a new license for images at $49 (£39) for web use. More than 50,000 artists from more than 17 associations weren’t happy with that decision and have called for Getty Images to remove all Rights Managed and Rights Ready images from the scheme. The Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) made clear that the announcement of a term reduction to three months was a positive move, but still falls short of addressing their serious concerns. SAA is currently in a dialogue with Getty Images about the $49 license. The main concerns about the new Web Use stock image license are the loss of high-value digital licensing revenue, the devaluation of RM licensing, and the reduced return for the photographer, amongst others.