News
Peoria TV station reports on Getty layoff of former Jupiter Images employees
Last week Jupitermedia Corporation (NASDAQ: JUPM) announced that it had finalized its sale to Getty Images for $96 million and this week Getty had taken steps to begin laying-off hundreds of employees including 100 workers from the Former Dynamic graphis office in Peoria Illinois as reported by local TV station WMBD/WYZZ. The story further states “All 400 worldwide employees from England to Australia will be laid off between April and September. One hundred of those employees are based in Peoria.”
Jupiter Media CEO Alan Meckler explains that the business was sold after losing 40% of their business after what he calls a ‘technology internet revolution’ (i.e. micro-stock) changed their competitive landscape. “images the company used to sell for $300 a piece could now be purchased for as little as $3 by competitors. Thus leaving the company no other option but to sell the company to Getty images or go bankrupt” Meckler adds.
In response to the story Getty Images issued the following explanation. “It is our intention is to bring together the best of each company’s assets and people to better serve our customers. As with any acquisition, there will be areas of work duplication and overlap between the two organizations being brought together, creating redundancies. As a result, some Jupiterimages employees in the US will be leaving within the next 60 days. There will be some employees who will be asked to stay on for a longer transition period to help with the integration. Regarding offices, in the US, a few key JupiterImages offices will remain open based on business need and building requirements. However, it is likely that the JupiterImages employees who stay with Getty Images will eventually move to an existing Getty Images office location. In EMEA, Jupiterimages is following statutory requirements for any employee redundancies”.
Web: www.jupiterimages.com - www.gettyimages.com - WMBD/WYZZ newscast
Posted in: Getty Images, Jupiter Media, News, Stock Photo Companies
Comments(3)
post a comment »Rahul Pathak, March 03, 2009 [#]
Any idea on what might happen vis a vis StockXpert?
John Carrey, March 04, 2009 [#]
It belongs to Getty now.
Rahul Pathak, March 04, 2009 [#]
I wonder if they’ll keep it running as is or phase it out in favor of istock…