The compnay Getty Images is hugh in the stock photo industry.  What are stock photos?  Stock photos are photographs, illustrations, and digital renderings that are used by graphic and web designers.  For example, the photos used in web articles or blogs can be purchased stock photos -- as well as photos used in advertisement, brochures, pamphlets, posters, etc.   But make sure you purchase the rights to use those photos.  Getty Images have been known to use PicScout to track down on unauthorized use of their stock photos^{1 and 2}  

One of the more well known stock photo website is iStockPhoto.com used by many web designers and graphic artists. Did you know that iStockPhoto is owned by Getty Images? Yes, Getty acquired it for $50 million in 2006³.

In Febraury 2009, Getty Images finalized acquisition of Jupiter Images. Jupiter Images is big in its own way. Jupiter owns stockXpert.com and the popular free stock image site Stock.XCHNG and ComStock Images as well. So now Getty Images owns those sites as well. What this means is that when people search for a free stock images on Stock.XCHNG, they will see non-free images from iStockPhoto and StockXpert being promoted. How much did Getty buy Jupiter for? Oh, just $96 million⁴.

In 2007, Getty bought MediaVast, which owns WireImage, FilmMagic, Contour Photos. That purchase was a little more expensive at about $207 million⁵.

Getty Images also buys overseas companies as long as they are related to photo media. In 2006, Getty Images bought the Italian-based Laura Ronchie which owns Gallo Images, Touchline Photo, Isifa Image Service, and Laura Ronchi⁶. And in late 2008, Getty acquired London-based Redferns Music Picture Library⁷.

Getty Images have been quoted in AboutTheImage.com as "world's largest stock photo agency"

They are based in Seattle Washington and was founded in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klien.  Getty Images was one of the first to license imagery online and offers a board collection of images for use in advertising, media, etc.

In 2008, private equity investment firm Hellman & Friedman aquired Getty Images for the large sum of $2.4 billion⁸.

With all these acquisitions by Getty Images, are there any other stock image sites left? Yes, DreamsTime, Corbis, Fotolia, Shutterstock are a few that comes to mind. But I'm sure there are many others.

Article published: Aug 2009