 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| NYSE: GETY | |
| Industry | |
| Genre | Stock photography |
| Predecessors |
|
| Founded | 14 March 1995; 30 years ago (1995-03-14) (as Getty Investments, LLC.)[1] |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington ,U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products | |
| Services | Rights-managed and royalty-free images, audio, and video |
| Revenue |  US$917 million (2023)[3] |
| US$128 million (2023)[3] | |
 US$19.6 million (2023)[3] | |
| Total assets | US$2.60 billion (2023)[3] |
| Total equity | US$681 million (2023)[3] |
| Owner | Getty family (36.7%)[4] |
Number of employees | c. 1,700 (2023)[3] |
| Divisions | Getty Productions |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | gettyimages |
Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (stylized asgettyimages) is avisual media company and supplier ofstock images,editorial photography, video, and music for businesses and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets—creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), themedia (print and online publishing), andcorporate (in-house design, marketing and communication departments).
Getty Images has distribution offices around the world and capitalizes on the Internet for distribution with over 2.3 billion searches annually on its sites. As Getty Images has acquired other older photo agencies and archives, it hasdigitized their collections, enabling online distribution. Getty Images operates a largecommercial website that clients use to search and browse for images, purchase usage rights, and download images. Image prices vary according toresolution and type of rights. The company also offers custom photo services for corporate clients. In January 2025, it was announced that the company would be merging withShutterstock.[5]
In 1995,Mark Getty and chief executive officerJonathan Klein co-founded Getty Investments LLC in London.[1] Mark Getty is the company's chairman. In September 1997, Getty Communications, as it was called at the time, merged withPhotoDisc, Inc. to form Getty Images. The company relocated to Seattle two years later and expanded in the United States, reaching 2,000 employees by 2006.[1] In April 2003, Getty Images entered into a partnership withAgence France-Presse (AFP) to market each other's images.[6]
Getty Images acquired theMichael Ochs Archives in February 2007.[7] The Michael Ochs Archives were described byThe New York Times as "the premier source of musician photography in the world".[8]
In 2008, the private equity firmHellman & Friedman (H&F) acquired Getty Images for $2.4 billion.[1] In 2012, H&F put Getty up for sale.[9] As of the ensuing sale toCarlyle Group, the company was said to have an archive that included 80 million stills and illustrations.[10] The company was acquired by the Getty family in 2018.
The company moved to its current headquarters, in theUnion Station office complex in Seattle'sInternational District, in 2011.[11]
In 2015,Jonathan Klein became the company's chairman, andDawn Airey was hired aschief executive officer (CEO) of Getty Images.[12][13][14] Airey remained in the role until 31 December 2018, at which time she became a non-executive director member of its board and Craig Peters was appointed CEO.[15]
In 2019, Getty Images introduced Market Freeze, simplifying the exclusivity of rights-managed images.[16] Later that year, it announced that due to customers' changing needs, it plans to phase out rights-managed imagery by 2020 in favor of royalty-free images.[17]
In December 2021, Getty Images announced its intention to become publicly traded once more through a combination with CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II. In July 2022, theSPAC merger was completed, and the newly formed parent company of Getty Images went public on theNew York Stock Exchange under the symbol GETY.[18]
Activist investor Trillium Capital made an unsolicited bid to acquire Getty forUS$4 billion in April 2023 – representing nearly a 100 percent premium.[19][20] Getty turned down the offer, questioning its credibility.[21]
In September 2023, Getty announced that it was partnering withNvidia to launch Generative AI by Getty Images, a new tool that lets people create images using Getty's library of licensed photos. Getty will use Nvidia's Edify model, which is available on Nvidia's generative AI model library, Picasso.[22] Their stock footage is used inBaby Einstein andLittle Einsteins.
In January 2025, it was announced that the company would be merging withShutterstock.[23] The UK'sCompetition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into the proposed merger in August 2025.[24]
Since its formation, Getty Images has pursued an aggressive programme ofacquisition, buying up many privately owned agencies that had built up the stock photography industry, from small family-run firms to larger agencies. By 1999, it had acquired one of the largest agencies, Tony Stone Images; the online art seller Art.com; the sports photography agencyAllsport; and the market leader in the Benelux and Scandinavia:World View (1996, from Bert Blokhuis, four offices, for an undisclosed sum); journalistic specialists Liaison Agency; Newsmakers, the first digital news photo agency; Online USA, a specialist in celebrity shots; and theHulton Press Library, the former archive of the British photojournalistic magazinePicture Post. The Hulton collection was sold by theBBC toBrian Deutsch in 1988, when it was renamed Hulton Deutsch. Getty Images purchased the Hulton collection in 1996 and renamed it Hulton Getty. With the acquisition of the Hulton Library, Getty Images took ownership of the rights to some 15 million photographs from British press archives dating back to the nineteenth century. Hulton Getty also included photographs from theKeystone Collection, as well as images by notable photographers such asBert Hardy,Bill Brandt,Weegee, andErnst Haas.[25]
Getty has branched out into stock audio, music and sound effects, and also video with the acquisition of EyeWire and Energy Film Library.[26] Getty has partnered with other companies, includingSlidely, for companies and advertisers to use the Getty Images video library of around 2 million videos.[27]
In 2000, Getty acquired one of its main competitors, Archive Photos of New York (a division of The Image Bank), for US$183 million.[26] The Archive Photos library was combined with the Hulton Getty collection to form a new subsidiary, Hulton Archive. Archive Photos was formed in 1990 from the merger of Pictorial Parade (est. 1935) and Frederick Lewis Stock Photos (est. 1938), two well-established US photo agencies. Their collections included archive images fromThe New York Times,Metronome, andGeorge Eastman House, and works by photographers such asRuth Orkin,Anacleto Rapping, Deborah Feingold, Murray Garrett,Nat Fein andJohn Filo.[25]
Further acquisitions followed, with the purchase in 2004 of Image.net for US$20 million.[28] On 9 February 2006, themicrostock photo websiteiStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for US$50 million.[29] In 2007, Getty successfully purchased its largest competitor, MediaVast, for $207 million. The acquisition gave Getty Images control of WireImage (entertainment, creative, and sports photography), FilmMagic (fashion and red carpet photography), and Contour Photos (portrait and studio photography). Getty Images also acquired other subsidiaries, including Master Delegates, which includes Isifa Image Service inPrague and Laura Ronchi in Italy.[30] In 2008, Getty purchased Redferns Music Picture Library, the music photo library built up by British jazz photographerDavid Redfern.[31]
On 23 October 2008, Getty Images announced their intention to buyJupitermedia's online images division, Jupiterimages, for $96 million in cash.[32] The sale went ahead in February 2009; Jupiterimages (including the sitesstock.xchng andStockXpert) is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Getty. Jupitermedia, now trading asWebMediaBrands, continues its Internet publishing business, which they didn't sell to Getty Images.[33]
On 25 January 2016,Corbis announced that it had sold its image licensing business, including the Corbis Images, Corbis Motion, and Veer libraries and their associated assets, to Unity Glory, an affiliate ofVisual China Group—Getty's exclusive distributor in China. Concurrently, it was announced that VCG would, after a transition period, license, distribute, and market the Corbis library outside of China to Getty. Getty now manages Corbis's physical archives on behalf of VCG and Unity Glory.[34][35][36]
In March 2021, Getty Images acquiredUnsplash, a free-to-use stock photography website, for an undisclosed sum.[37]
In February 2008, it was announced that Getty Images would be acquired by the private equity firmHellman & Friedman in a transaction valued at an estimated US$2.4 billion.[38] On 2 July 2008, Getty Images announced the completion of its acquisition. Getty Images common stock ceased trading on theNew York Stock Exchange at the close of the acquisition and was delisted from the NYSE.[39]
In 2012, H&F engaged investment bankers to sell the company. While a price of $4 billion was initially discussed, in August, when the private equity firm Carlyle Group emerged as the likely acquirer, the price under consideration was said to be $3.3–3.4 billion.CVC Capital Partners Ltd. was also said to have been bidding but had yet to top Carlyle's price.[9] The sale to Carlyle thereafter was announced at $3.3 billion, with co-founders Getty and Klein and the Getty family all carrying their investments over into the new ownership structure. Getty continues to serve as chairman and Klein as chief executive.[10]
In September 2018, the Getty family announced it would acquire a majority stake in the company fromThe Carlyle Group.[40] In July 2022, the company went public again.[18]
The Getty Images Gallery was located at 46Eastcastle Street, London.[41]
In 2008, it hosted an exhibition of children forBarnardo's child adoption agency, in an exhibition called "Home Time", aimed at helping to find homes for hundreds of children waiting for adoption. It included photographs by celebrity photographerCambridge Jones, as well as byCherie Blair,Bruce Oldfield,Andrew Lincoln,Gail Porter, andClaudia Winkleman.[41]
The gallery permanently closed in January 2019.[42]
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Beginning in 2008, Getty Images has been the subject of controversy for its methods of pursuing copyright enforcement on behalf of its photographers. Rather than pursue a policy of sending "cease and desist" notices, Getty typically mails ademand letter that claims substantial monetary damages from owners of websites it believes infringed on their photographers' copyrights. Getty commonly tries to intimidate website owners by sending collection agents, even though a demand letter does not create a debt.[43]
One photographer noted, "Courts don't like to be used as a means of extortion." In one case, Getty sent a church inLichfield,Staffordshire, a £6,000 bill for photographs it used on its website, apparently placed there by a church volunteer. In this case, the church offered to pay Getty what it thought was a reasonable amount. Thediocese's communications director said:
Getty was not playing ball or following the normal litigation ordispute resolution procedures and [I advised the church] to ignore them. We don't deal with bullies; we deal withlegal threats appropriately. I told [Getty] by letter that's what [the church was] doing, that we were not going to play, and didn't hear any more.[43]
The Guardian described other instances in which Getty or other stock photo businesses dropped a claim when a website owner refused to pay and hired a lawyer. A law firm was quoted as saying, "Once we get involved generally Getty does back off."[43]
In 2009, Oscar Michelen, a New York attorney who focuses on such damage claims, said, "The damages they're requesting aren't equal to the copyright infringement," and "there's no law that says definitively what images are worth in the digital age."[44] He called Getty's effort to assess four-figure fines "a legalized form of extortion".[44]
In an effort to combat online copyright infringement, in March 2014 Getty Images made over 35 million images available free for non-commercial online use via embedding withattribution and a link back to the Getty Images website.[45][46] According to Getty Images executive Craig Peters, "The principle is to turn what's infringing use with good intentions, turning that into something that's valid licensed use with some benefits going back to the photographer".[47]
On 15 February 2018,Google Images' interface was modified to meet the terms of a settlement and licensing partnership with Getty. The "View image" button (adeep link to the image itself on its source server) was removed from image thumbnails. This change is intended to discourage users from directly viewing the full-sized image (though users can still do so using a browser's context menu on the embedded thumbnail) and encourage them to view the image in its appropriate context (which may also include attribution and copyright information) on its respective web page. The "Search by image" button has also been downplayed, asreverse image search can be used to find higher-resolution copies of copyrighted images. Google also agreed to make the copyright disclaimer within the interface more prominent.[48][49]
In 2009, Car-Freshner Corp., makers ofLittle Trees, filed a lawsuit against Getty Images inU.S. Federal Court,Northern District of New York (Case 7:09-cv-01252-GTS -GHL).[50] Car-Freshner claimed that Getty Images had in its catalog photos that included the famous "tree-shaped" trademarked car fresheners. In 2011, Getty Images attempted to have the case dismissed, but its motion was denied.[51] In 2012, Getty Images agreed to settle by paying $100,000 to Car-Freshener Corp., but admitted no wrongdoing.[52]
In September 2013, Avril Nolan brought a $450,000 suit against Getty Images. Nolan claimed that Getty Images improperly used her image in advertisements portraying her as HIV-positive. She claimed the ad's depiction of her as HIV-positive (she is not) hurt her personal and professional relationships and caused her emotional distress.[53][54] In March 2014 a judge ruled the lawsuit will be taken to court rather than dismissed.[55] Getty Images settled with Nolan in January 2015.[56]
In November 2013, Getty andAgence France-Presse were ordered to pay $1.2 million in compensation to freelance photojournalist Daniel Morel for using his images posted onTwitter related to the2010 Haiti earthquake without his permission, in violation of copyright and Twitter's terms of service.[57][58]
In July 2016, Getty was sued, unsuccessfully,[59] for over $1 billion byCarol Highsmith, an American photographer notable for donating her 100,000+ image collection, royalty-free, to theLibrary of Congress, when Highsmith found that Getty had been selling unauthorized licenses of her work (an instance ofcopyfraud).[60][61] Highsmith found out about this when she received a letter from a law firm representing Getty, demanding $120 for displaying her pictures on a personal website of hers.[62][63]
In August 2016,Zuma Press, an independent press agency, filed suit against Getty for alleged copyright violations and unauthorized licensing of more than 47,000 images.[64]
Getty Images has continued the practice that Corbis (whose license it acquired in 2016) has been criticized for of claiming copyright on, watermarking, and selling images that are in the public domain, including images related to the Holocaust like theWarsaw Ghetto boy photo,[65][66] thePolish cavalry in Sochaczew photograph,[67] or images created byNASA.[68] Getty has also tried to collect fees from photographers for use of their own images that they had previously put in the public domain.[68]
Public-domain photos from historical photographers such asDorothea Lange andWalker Evans have long been available for unrestricted downloading from the United StatesLibrary of Congress. The exact same images are also available from Getty Images, subject to a licensing fee of up to $5,000 for a six-month term.[62] According toJason Mazzone [fr], a lawyer for theAuthors Alliance, these practices demonstrate an example ofcopyfraud.[69]
On January 17, 2023, Getty Images said it was suingStability AI over the use of Getty's images to train theAI art generator Stable Diffusion and for imitating the Getty Images' trademark.[70][71] Getty released its own AI image generator trained on its library of licensed stock images in September 2023.[72]
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |