Kristi Heim has published a report at the Mercury News: "Image Control".
It´s about Getty and Corbis again: "Getty Images' market share is three or four times that of Corbis, and the company is profitable. Corbis has never made a profit but said its sales reached $140 million in 2003. It aims to grow at least 20 percent a year."
And: "Corbis' rights clearance business is growing much faster than its basic business of image licensing and earns a higher profit, Shenk [Corbis] said...the rights clearance service was a major reason Reuters chose to expand its deal with Corbis, said Reuters Senior Vice President Monique Villa."
The report is great although kind of servilely. Rumors has it that Gates who founded Corbis in 1989 will - in terms of money - never get the money back that he had invested in Corbis.
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[See also this story by Carol Tice: "Corbis moves may signal preparation for stock sale": "J.P. Morgan's Paul Coster, who is based in New York, issued a report which sizes Corbis up as a credible rival to Getty, though with revenue roughly one-fourth of Getty's $463 million in 2002 sales. He estimates Corbis' market share at 10 percent, with Getty having more than 40 percent. He speculated that both Corbis and Getty are gaining market share at the expense of the many small stock agencies that make up 60 percent of the market. One potential obstacle to a future IPO for Corbis is its long record of unprofitability."]
