News
RGB Ventures, a consortium of RF supplier, buys Superstock-USA
A consortium of small RF supplier companies called RGB Ventures and including rubberball productions, Glow Images and other members of the RF production group, Blend Images, have purchased the assets of a21/Superstock, the Jacksonville, Florida, based stock photo company that filed for bankruptcy in November of 2008. The group paid $2,825,000 for the company. The new owners plan to keep the company going with Lanny Ziering, heretofore Director of Business Development at Blend, will assume the position of CEO.
RGB outbid Masterfile, who had initially expressed interest in purchasing the company only to absorb its assets and shut it down. RGB believe, that the conditions under which they have acquired the company, including taking it private, reduced debt, the opportunity to move to less expensive offices, and the elimination of the accounting and reporting burdens shouldered by a public company, give them the opportunity to turn a profit within a year. As a publicly traded company, Superstock had never achieved profitability.
Louis Ingram, the creator of the stock image company, Ingram Publishing, bought the UK assets of Superstock for $100K, in effect, repurchasing the collection he had sold to Superstock three years ago. He intends to operate Ingram publishing as an image supplier company, much the way he did before he sold it off to A21, the owners of Superstock.
Posted in: A21 Group, News, Stock Photo Companies, Superstock
Comments(7)
post a comment »Nick, January 20, 2009 [#]
At the point of filing for bankruptcy protection Superstock owed about 1 millions dollars in royalties to photographers and agencies. I hear that the new owners RGB have elected not to purchase the contracts that A21/Superstock had with their suppliers which means they will not be liable for paying the unpaid royalties. However I believe they still wish to represent many of the existing suppliers and want to sign new agreements with them whilst not paying any royalties owed prior to the Dec 4 filing. Does anyone have more info about the situation?
Marie, January 27, 2009 [#]
In response to Nick’s comment on Jan. 20, ‘09. Contributors are being asked to file claims for commissions owed them in which they will most likely receive only a percentage. New contracts have been sent out to contributors and it is up to each contributor whether or not they continue to be represented with the new company. Yes, the contributors are losing out on several months of commissions due to this situation. As a contributor with several agencies, I can say however that it might be best to stick with the transition and see what this company does this year. Supply of stock photos is much greater than demand right now with the new selling models and down economy and it’s hard for anyone who doesn’t have a desirable niche to make out well.
Nick, January 28, 2009 [#]
Has anyone else noticed that the last few months before Superstock filed for bankruptcy protection that their sales reports were well above average? These are the months of sales they’re not paying. Looks hugely suspicious to me. Not much we can do about it though, other than to refuse to sign a new agreement with them in protest. Not sure I want to work with them anymore when I don’t trust them. There’s better options out there. Alamy for example, even Photolibrary - at least they have attempted to pay the unpaid royalties to Index photographers, however badly that has gone. RGB haven’t even bothered to do that, they just bought the bits they want and then hope to get the photographer/agent contracts again for free. Does that leave a nasty taste in your mouth?
Alan, January 28, 2009 [#]
Response to Nick:
Alan Bailey here. I’m one of the owners of Rubberball.
I don’t blame you for being skeptical considering what happened with Index and others.
It need to be said, however, that in our bids we (RGB) and Masterfile both negotiated $320,000 dollars away from the secured creditors (Morgan Stanley, etc) and placed it with non-secured creditors (contributing photographers, etc) to pay royalties owed. By court order a21, the former parent company of Superstock, now has to pay out that money to photographers. The court has made the transcripts public. Feel free to check for yourself.
As for the future of Superstock: RGB is made up of content-creator agencies and have an impeccable record in how they treat their photographers and channel partners.
Marie, January 28, 2009 [#]
Response to Alan and Nick:
Nick, I too am upset with the way we contributors have been burned in this A21 bankruptcy situation. I represent a photographer who was getting cheated out of commissions for years from 2 other stock agencies and I can tell you that it’s a more common problem than one can imagine. However, I feel that the reality of this situation is that any bankruptcy action is going to result in the loss of income to contributors (the “little guys"). Any company willing to buy up a bankrupt stock agency cannot be expected to pay off vast debts caused by the unethical and poor management of its former owners and still have a realistic chance at turning the company around and making it profitable once again for ALL concerned. I don’t believe the $320,000 will cover all due commissions and someone from superstock told me yesterday to expect only a percentage of what is owed me but I am making note of the effort on the part of RGB.
Alan, as a contributor to Superstock who is hemming and hawing over signing my new contract, can you tell me and other contributors what your company plans on doing to bring new customers to Superstock and what changes you might implement to make your new acquisition profitable?
Alan, January 29, 2009 [#]
Response to Marie:
Good questions. I can’t get into much detail, but you can expect the new management to focus on:
1- More targeted marketing efforts
2- Wider distribution
3- More concentrated direct sales (and better tools for the sales people)
4- Redesigned website with a much-improved search
5- Add more content to our rights managed and royalty free offering
I apologize that I can’t offer more specifics at the moment. I can say that we’ve already made headway on a few of the items above. We know 2009 will be challenging for everyone. Despite that, we’re confident about the direction we’re taking the company. We’ll be making efforts along the way to communicate with contributors through this and other forums, as well through electronic channels. Feel free to contact us directly at any time.
Nick, January 31, 2009 [#]
Anyone know the deadline to make a claim from the court for a % of those owed royalties? I wonder if its too late now.