Getty Images, Inc. is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington, USA.

It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 70 million still images and illustrations and more than 30,000 hours of stock film footage. It targets three markets — creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate (in-house design, marketing and communication departments).

Getty has distribution offices around the world and capitalizes on the Internet and CD-ROM collections for distribution. The company also offers custom photo services for corporate clients.

History

In 1993, Mark Getty and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein co-founded Getty Investments LLC, which today is the principal shareholder of Getty Images. Mark Getty is the company's chairman.

In September 1997, Getty Communications, as it was called at the time, merged with PhotoDisc, Inc. to form Getty Images.

In April 2003 Getty Images entered into a partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to market each other's images.

In September 2007, Getty Images adopted a new pricing policy for web image sales that has caused a great deal of controversy among photographers. This policy created a new price package of only $49 for small web images. Controversially, this price was intended to apply to both rights-managed and royalty-free images. In the past, rights-managed images have commanded a price that could easily be 10 times that amount. As a result, a number of international photographers' organizations have complained to Getty. The repricing has occurred at a time when Getty Images' share price and profitability have been under pressure.

The Getty family owns about 20 percent of the company.Fact: date=January 2009

Competition

There are dozens of companies selling stock photography competing with Getty, but the largest is a public company formerly known as Internet.com, named Jupitermedia Corporation, and a private company controlled by Bill Gates, named Corbis. By buying out the many family-owned businesses that created the field, Getty, Jupiter and Corbis—are in the process of "rolling-up" the stock photo business. In recent months, Getty bought out Digital Vision, iStockphoto, and Stockbyte, and Jupiter bought Comstock and PictureArts.

Acquisitions

In 2004, Getty bought image.net for $20 million USD. On February 9, 2006, the microstock photo website iStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for $50 million USD. In 2007, Getty successfully purchased its largest competitor, MediaVast, for $207 million. The acquisition meant that Getty Images gained control of WireImage (Entertainment, creative, and sports photography), FilmMagic (fashion and red carpet photography), Contour Photos (portrait and studio photography). Getty Images also acquired a host of other subsidiaries including "Master Delegates" who include: Gallo Images in Johannesburg, Touchline Photo in Cape Town, Isifa Image Service in Prague, Laura Ronchi in Italy On October 23, 2008, Getty Images announced they are to acquire the Jupiterimages division from Jupitermedia for $96 million in cash. The acquisition is technically subject to the approval of shareholders and the receipt of certain regulatory approvals. Getty Images finalized the purchase of Jupiterimages on February 23, 2009. In December of 2008, it was announced that Getty Images was acquiring Redferns Music Picture Library, the London-based music photography collection.