StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

QuickLinks For 2007-02-28, II

• Stock Image Market Sizing 2007, with projections for RF and RM:
  Because the stock image industry is extremely fractured and dominated by small and mid-sized, privately owned companies, creating accurate estimates is extremely difficult. The Industry Measure has an advantage in that, instead of starting with the stock image companies, it can take advantage of its yearly and twice yearly mail surveys of these four key marketplaces to ask the purchasers of stock images themselves
  The Industry Measure, study available for $995/82 p., only $12.13 per page. (LO)
  Tag: Stock photo industry

QuickLinks For 2007-02-28

• Market's Swoon Presents Buying Opportunities Aplenty:
  Getty Images' stock imagery business generates loads of excess cash for its shareholders. Increasing competition at the lower end of the market has presented new challenges, however. We think Getty's moat is wide enough to withstand these new pressures, allowing the company to continue to generate excess returns for many more years, albeit with a slower growth rate than the company has enjoyed in the past. And, of yeah, the stock looks like a veritable bargain following today's decline, which shaved more than 3% off its price.
  Mornigstar.com/Yahoo Finance.
  Tag: Getty Images

"I just can't get enough": After Acquiring The Michael Ochs Archives, Depeche Mode Dedicates Song Generously To Getty Images

And while I´m admittedly tired to write constantly about which next new photo bank was acquired by Getty Images or not, the stock house is out with a new announcement that is has bought The Michael Ochs Archives with "over 2 million of the worlds most important, rare, iconic and never seen before photos from the music and entertainment industry", "arguably the best of its kind in the world" and a nice addition to the Hulton Archive.

QuickLinks For 2007-02-27

• Tom Hughes, co-founder of Photodisc, joins start-up Imagekind as investor. Imagekind is a competitor to Art.com and lets photographers "upload their artwork for sale, and gives them the freedom to sell it at whatever price they want". All  details here.
  Related:
  •Imagekind, the Web site for artists and photographers, raises cash (VentureBeat)
  •Imagekind Secures $2.56 million In First Round Financing (paidContent)
  Tag: Imagekind

QuickLinks For 2007-02-26

• Getty Buys Wireimage, an Analysis:
  There was talk of Wireimage filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Was that the motivation for Wireimage to finally sell out to their rival? And if Wireimage was doing so well in the business why would they sell? The Wireimage photo credit and its sister service, Film Magic, dominate magazines. The only problem is that doesn't mean you are making money. Wireimage had a very high overhead. [...]
  Wireimage was known to gain market share by heavily discounting the price of photos. You have to sell a lot of photos at discount prices to recoup the high overhead. All in a time period where publications are retrenching, not expanding.
  Francis Specker, On: Location.
  Tags: MediaVast WireImage Getty Images

QuickLinks For 2007-02-25

• Zachery Kouwe, the stock photo industry´s first secret service employee and author of the original New York Post article last week in which he unveiled "Getty is Eyeing 'net Rival" is out with a follow-up in "Jupiter merger in Getty´s Orbit":
  Meckler owns 35 percent of Jupitermedia´s outstanding stock and essentially controls the outcome of any shareholder vote. [...]
  Jupitermedia has formed a special committee of independent board members - John Patrick, Michael Davies and Gilbert Bach - to evaluate Getty´s offer. The special committee has also retained Merrill Lynch and law firm Cooley Godward & Kronish to help them with negotiations.
  Several investors in Jupiter said it was unusual for a company to publish a specific price without having a deal done. "It looks like this could be an opening bid," said one analyst. Some investors speculated that Getty rival Corbis could emerge as a rival bidder for Jupitermedia now that confidential talks have been disclosed.
  New York Post.
  Tags: Getty Images

Gawker Media´s Consumerist Steals Again Photos, Now From Getty Images

This time not from Flickr, like they did ten days ago and publicly admitted the theft through Consumerist´s editor Ben Popken.

Instead they steal now a watermark protected image from Getty Images for a story on CompUSA, written again by mastermind Ben Popken. Thanks John for the hint, but I somehow don´t buy that "Getty opts not to pursue the infringement, because it's a free ad on a really popular site whereby their name appears prominently".

Related:

• Gawker Media: Consumerist´s Editor Ben Popken Admits Publicly to Steal Photos From Flickr´s Photographers (Feb. 16, 2007)

QuickLinks For 2007-02-24, II

• Getty gets notice of debt default:
  Getty Images said Friday it received a notice that it has defaulted on its $265 million of 0.50 percent convertible subordinated debentures series B due 2023. As a result of the notice, the trustee or holders of at least 25 percent of the outstanding debt can declare all unpaid principal and accrued interest to be immediately due. Getty said that if the debentures are called in, it will be able to pay any unpaid principal and interest that would be due.
  Getty shares fell $1.10, or 2 percent, to $54.26 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
  BusinessWeek/Associated Press.
  For more related links and stories, click continue.
  Tag: Getty Images

QuickLinks For 2007-02-24

• Getty Images Shares Pull Back:
  Wall Street began considering the downside of Getty Images´s purchase of MediaVast and its talks to buy Jupitermedia. "We view this deal as a strategic positive for Getty", Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Christa Quarles said. But the Jupitermedia purchase could make the stock more volatile over the next few quarters.
  Citigroup analyst Matthew Troy also saw risks for Getty. He said the company is spending about $540 million on the buyouts, exhausting its cash supply and taking on debt. Getty acknowledged the purchases will not make money until 2008.
  Forbes/Associated Press.
  Tags: Getty Images MediaVast Jupiterimages Jupitermedia

Letters from Italy with Pino Granata´s Ceterum censeo: The Stars Look Down

 

What is happening right now in our editorial and stock photo industry is unbelievable.

Getty Images is buying everything and now anybody can observe that we are under a monopoly regime.

What we do in these days is gossip. We talk of Getty Images, Corbis, acquisitions, stock market trends, but we dont talk about photographers and photography anymore.