Getty releases most recent quarter results (for the last time?)
With the company poised to go private within this calendar quarter or early in the next, Getty Images released its results for the first three months of 2008. Unless the “merger” (as the company now refers to the transaction taking Getty private) is pushed off into the next quarter, these will be the last financial figures we see from the company. Assuming these are the last figures we’ll see, the company appears to be going out with a sigh. Currency neutral revenue grow by only 4.2% in quarter, while gross, operating and profit margins all deteriorated when compared to 1Q07.
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• OnRequest Images, a Seattle-based company that builds custom stock photo libraries for corporations has 
iStockphoto, has announced a partnership with CreateAds.com, a self-service ad-creation tool used by Small businesses in the UK to create newspaper ads. Users of the service will now have direct access to more than 2.6 million images from iStockphoto to suit their specific advertising needs. CreateAds.com works with publishers who produce 1,800 weekly and daily publications. Combined, these publications publish approximately 1 million ads per month, one-third of which incorporate photography. According to John Reid, Chairman of The Newspaper Society, “It’s hard to create a bad looking ad using this system”.
PicScout, a technology company with offices in San Francisco and Herzelia Israel best known for helping stock licensing companies monitor distribution of their content, has launched a new service called PicApp for bloggers and other online publishers to use copyrighted images for free on their websites. Rather than pay for the content with traditional licensing fees each image is accompanied by an advertisement that generates royalties to the content contributor.
Getty Images has awarded grants of $20K each to two editorial photographers for their outstanding works of social and cultural commentary through imagery. Ian Martin of Oakland, California, and Lorena Ros were selected from a pool of 139 applicants from 29 countries. The winners will also receive collaborative support from Getty to pursue their respective projects.
In a press-release issued today, Getty Images has announced an agreement to be bought by the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. The reported value of the deal of $2.4BB (or $34.00 per share) exceeds by 60% the originally estimated selling price of $1.5BB quoted by the New York Times when Getty first made public its intention to seek "strategic alternatives." According to the release, Getty’s Board of Directors has agreed to the deal and will recommend its approval to shareholders. The company expects to complete the transaction during the second quarter of 2008.
Getty Images continues to pursue avenues of growth apart from its principal business activity of licensing still photography. On the audio content licensing front, Getty has just signed a deal with the independent film production company, Lionsgate, whose most recent feature film ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ received an Oscar nomination for its musical score. The deal includes scores from other well-known Lionsgate films ‘Monster’s Ball’ and ‘Crash’ as well as music from the company’s television productions.
Getty Images, London, has announced the addition to its offerings of the historical image archive Popperfoto which includes the Bob Thomas Sports Photography collection. Bob Thomas, himself, owns Popperfoto which he has, up to now, marketed through various distribution partners world-wide from their offices in a small village outside of London.
Getty Images, The world’s largest stock licensing company has released the second edition of the MAP Report (what Makes A Picture). The Map report, created by Getty Images global creative research team, provides insight into visual trends that will change the look of mass-communication. This year´s report is entitled AspEn, with a strong focus on environmental consciousness, or ideals of “aspirational environmentalism” as it relates to marketers who are attempting to “out-green” each other. The report states that in 2008 brands will have to be more aware of careless uninspiring use of environmental visual clichés. The report is available for purchase as an English-language PDF for (US $750, £400).
