A History of Getty Images' Acquisitions

With news of Getty Images' acquisition by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, we thought we'd share this list, compiled by research firm Ketupa.net and analyzed by yours truly, to show how Getty became the prime mover in the photo industry. Full list of Getty's acquisitions, and prices when available, after the jump.

Getty Images: Major Acquisitions Through the Years

(emphasis and analysis are ours)

1995 Getty Investment Holdings takes 80% stake in Tony Stone Images (1)

1996 Getty Communications floated on Nasdaq with value of US$154m

1996 Carlton buys 10% stake for £17m

1996 Getty buys Hulton Deutsch Collection for £8.6m (2)

1997 buys Fabulous Footage for US$2.5m

1997 buys WorldView agency for US$2.7m

1997 buys Gamma Liaison for US$9.4m (3)

1997 Getty Communications buys PhotoDisc of the US and becomes Getty Images (4)

1997 buys Liaison Agency

1997 buys Energy Film Library for US$17.5m

1997 buys Hong Kong-based Profile Photo Library

1998 buys Allsport for £29.4m (5)

1998 buys Fototeca Stone

1998 buys Imageways

1998 buys Australian Image Library and Australian Sporting Pix

1999 buys The Image Bank from Eastman Kodak for US$183m (6)

1999 buys Art.com for around US$110m (7)

1999 buys Newsmakers

1999 Visual Communications Group (VCG) buys Definitive Stock for US$20m

1999 Getty buys American Royal Arts

1999 buys EyeWire typography and business image collection for US$32m

1999 buys Online USA

2000 United Business Media sells VCG to Getty for US$225m

2000 Getty buys i/us for US$2.5m

2002 lists on New York Stock Exchange

2003 buys ImageDirect music, entertainment and fashion photography (8)

2004 announces agreement with Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) and Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) to create unified Major League Baseball (MLB) image archive

2005 buys Photonica (US and European operations of leading Japanese online photo stock company Amana) for US$51m (9)

2006 pays US$50m for iStockphoto.com (10)

2006 acquires Ireland-based Pixel Images Holdings (inc Stockdisc and Stockbyte, Getty's largest image partner) for US$135m

2007 buys celebrity photo distributor WireImage (inc MediaVast, FilmMagic and Contour Photos) for US$200m (11)

2007 acquires The Michael Ochs Archives (music and entertainment imagery spanning 1940s to 1990s)

2007 buys UK 'citizen journalism' agency Scoopt (12a)

2007 buys Pump Audio music-licensing company for US$42.5m (12b)

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Analysis:

1) The purchase of the Tony Stone collection of stock images set's Getty's course as a major figure in the stock licensing business. Stone is still a branded collection in Getty's vast umbrella to this day.

2) The Hulton Deutsch collection shored up Getty's historical archives of 19th and 20th century photography. The move was a reaction to competitor Corbis snapping up the Bettman archive the year before. Corbis got the better deal, but Hulton Deutsch was a smart, strategic buy nonetheless.

3) Although not big in dollar figures, the purchase of Gamma Liaison helped Getty gain a foothold in contemporary news and photojournalism. It's handling of analog images by Liaison photographers also earned Getty a fair amount of criticism.

4) Getty had the foresight to invest in royalty free imagery and illustrations years before the business really took off.

5) One of Getty's smartest buys, the acquisition of the Allsport agency cemented Getty's position as the go-to agency for sports imagery.

6) Another smart acquisition of contemporary and archival photography and film footage from a company that didn't quite realize what it had on its hands or what to do with it.

7) OK, Getty gets a mulligan here. The purchase of Art.com is surely the company's biggest blunder. If memory serves the idea was to license photos to consumers though applications like PC wallpaper and prints. Needless to say, it flopped like a dotcom fish out of water.

8) The purchase of ImageDirect was small in monetary terms, but signaled Getty's push to become the dominant player in providing celebrity event and red carpet images to editorial clients that wouldn't be complete until it's purchase of MediaVast's WireImage several years later (see 11).

9) Getty didn't really need the European stock agency Photonica at this point, but by outbidding Corbis, Getty kept it out of the hands of its competitor.

10) Although a headscratcher at the time, the purchase of microstock company iStockphoto.com now seems like a smart move slightly ahead of its time. iStockphoto pioneered the licensing of images to individual designers and small/cheap companies for as little as $1 a pop. Ironically, this seems to have further eroded the perceived value of digital images.

11) After years of competing with and losing to WireImage in celebrity imagery, Getty buys out its biggest competitor in the space. The bonus acquisition of Contour Images helps shore up its high-end celebrity syndication photo business, ultimately a small portion of overall revenues.

12 a and b) The jury is still out on these, but they seem to indicate a strategic drift and lack of direction rarely seen in Getty's relatively brief history. It seems that Getty, unprepared and unsure of the new Web 2.0 economy, is grasping for straws. Stay tuned.

Source: Full chronology here. Analysis by Jay DeFoore

Comments

[john griffin]

I wonder when Google, Yahoo or Newscorp will buy them ;-)

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