The company was founded inSeattle byBill Gates in 1989 asInteractive Home Systems, and later renamedCorbis. The company's original goal was to license and digitize artwork and other historic images for the prospective concept ofdigital frames. In 1997, Corbis changed its business model to focus onlicensing the imagery and footage in its collection.
The Corbis collection included contemporary creative, editorial, entertainment, and historical photography as well as art and illustrations. Among its acquisitions were the 11 million pieceBettmann Archive, acquired in 1995; theSygma collection in France (1999); and the Germanstock image companyZEFA (2005). Corbis also had the rights to digital reproduction for art from theHermitage Museum inSt. Petersburg, Russia, thePhiladelphia Museum of Art and theNational Gallery in London.[4]
Corbis later expanded into providing services for the entertainment industry, includingbrand integration and rights clearance services. In January 2016, Corbis announced that it had sold its image licensing businesses to Unity Glory International, an affiliate ofVisual China Group. VCG licensed the images to Corbis's historic rival,Getty Images, outside China. Corbis retained its entertainment businesses under the name Branded Entertainment Network, which has since evolved to BENlabs.
Bill Gates founded the company in 1989 under the name Interactive Home Systems; he envisioned a system for allowing customers to decorate their homes with revolving displays ofartwork, including works by notable painters, usingdigital frames and technology that had yet to have been developed.[4] The company's name was changed to Continuum Productions in 1992 and later, to Corbis Corporation.[11] Interactive television was suggested as a way to deliver the content, but as the development of the planned product was under way, Corbis focused on digitizing content and acquiring rights to images. Corbis signed agreements with theNational Gallery of London, theLibrary of Congress, the Sakamoto Archive, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the State Hermitage Museum inSt. Petersburg, Russia.[11]
In October 1995, the company purchased theBettmann Archive collection, which included the pre-1983 photo library ofUnited Press International and its predecessor photo agencies, Acme and INP, the photo arm of theInternational News Service. Prior to acquiring the Bettmann Archive, Corbis represented roughly 500,000 images, a total that increased substantially when the Bettmann drawings, artworks, news photographs, and other illustrations were added to the company's portfolio. In all the Bettmann Archive contained 19 million images.[12] The archive was stored 220 feet underground in a refrigerated cave in theIron Mountain storage facility,[13]
In 1995, the company won a contract with its first major photographer,Roger Ressmeyer, followed by several more, includingGalen Rowell; this signalled growing interest in the world of professional photography, which up to that point had not taken the company seriously.[11] In 1996 the company acquired the exclusive rights to approximately 40,000 images photographed by wilderness photographerAnsel Adams.[14]
In 1997, Corbis named company veterans, Steve Davis and Tony Rojas, co-CEOs. Corbis also hired David Rheins to run Corbis' Productions, and Leslie Hughes to lead the company's B2B image licensing division, Corbis Images.[15] These hires marked the company's shift to a more market focused entity. Corbis Productions published several award-winning CD-ROM titles such asA Passion for Art: Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Dr. Barnes, compiled from theBarnes Foundation collection, andLeonardo da Vinci, which showcased theCodex Leicester.[16]
In 1998, Leslie Hughes was named President of Corbis Images. The company expanded internationally and through product development and further acquisitions. The company acquired Digital Stock Corp., a supplier of royalty-free images to further expand its offering.[17] In 1998, another division was added to Corbis Images when the company acquired Outline Press Syndicate, Inc., a supplier of celebrity portrait photography. Renamed Corbis Outline, the company syndicated studio portraits and candid photographs of actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, business leaders, scientists, and other celebrities and provided the images for sale to a broad range of national magazines.[18] The same year, Corbis also acquired Westlight, adding over 3 million images to their archives while scanning best selling images.[19]
In June 1999, the company acquired the French news photo agencySygma, adding 40 million additional images to the company's collection, and expanding Corbis's portfolio beyond 65 million images. The archive is today stored in a preservation and access facility outside Paris.[20]
Corbis's business-to-business image licensing business expanded with the growth of the internet in the early part of the decade. The company also expanded geographically, making multiple acquisitions such as the Stock Market[22] and expanding into the footage licensing market with the acquisition of Sekani.
In 2000, after the company's dramatic growth in the professional licensing business, Corbis named Leslie Hughes President of the newly consolidated Markets and Products Group (CMPG). The new group represented the consolidation of formerly separate business units, professional licensing and business communicator (small office).[23]
In 2001 Corbis built a state-of-the-art preservation facility in western Pennsylvania to house the Bettmann Archive. Corbis committed to preserving the collection for generations to come, and to allow continued access to this extraordinary collection.[24]
In late 2002, Leslie Hughes stepped down as President of Corbis' Markets and Products Group. Steve Davis was named as sole CEO, and Tony Rojas was appointed the company's president.
In 2005, the company expanded further into Europe with the acquisition of zefa,[25] and into Australia in 2006, with the acquisition of Australian Picture Library.[26]
In April 2007, the company announced it was naming new leadership. Steve Davis stepped down as CEO, and Gary Shenk was named as the new CEO as of July 1.[4][27] Shenk oversaw aggressive cost-cutting efforts to improve the company's financial performance and address the rise of low-cost competitors. The company experienced several waves of layoffs for the next several years, shed non-profitable lines of business and reduced its number of offices globally.
In November 2007, Corbis announced that it would be purchasing Veer and would continue to operate it as a separate brand.[28]
In early June 2007, Corbis announced that it was creating amicrostock website, SnapVillage. The company said it intended to use its microstock site as a farm club to find photographers who could also sell their photographs on the main Corbis Web site. In late June, the company launched SnapVillage, with about 10,000 images initially viewable. SnapVillage was closed due to low sales in early 2009 and rolled into Veer.
Corbis rebranded its Rights Services Division, previously a Division of Corbis Images, as "GreenLight" in 2008.[29]
In July 2008 Corbis sold eMotion LLC, its media management division, toOpen Text Corporation.
In May 2009, Corbis opened the Sygma Preservation and Access Facility outside Paris, France, housing tens of millions of photographic elements from the past half century in Europe.[30] The company in 2009 also re-launched its Corbis Motion website with hundreds of thousands of new video clips, after signing a new partnership with Thought Equity Motion.[31]
In 2010, Corbis increased its focus on serving web and mobile customers, with the introduction of low-resolution file sizes images that were more affordable for Web and Mobile use.[31] Corbis also relaunched its Veer.com website with a greater focus on affordable images and fonts to compete more effectively against low cost competitors.[32]
In 2010, Corbis was found to have committed fraud against Infoflows Corporation.[1][33]
In this decade, Corbis has discussed its financial direction in moving towards profitability multiple times without success.[34][35][36]
In January 2011,Shirley Jones sued Corbis alleging the company violated herpublicity rights, and seekingclass-action status for other celebrities.[37] The case was thrown out in June 2011, with the court forcing Jones to pay Corbis's legal fees and other costs.[38]
July 2011 – Five Photographers take Corbis to court for misuse of corporate assets in closing Corbis Sygma.[39]
July 2011 – Corbis acquiresSplash News, a Los Angeles–based firm that deals in celebrity photography.[5]
August 2011 – Corbis and theAssociated Press announce a distribution deal to try to reach each other's customers for current and archival photographs. Corbis' collection includes the library of onetime AP-rivalUPI, acquired in the purchase ofBettmann.[40]
January 2012 – Corbis acquires the product placement agency Norm Marshall Group.[41]
May 2012 – Washington State Appellate Court upholds jury verdict that Corbis committed fraud.[42][43]
Nov 2012 – Corbis expands global media footprint and acquires breaking news photojournalism newswire,Demotix, following successful investment and global distribution partnership.[44]
On January 22, 2016, Corbis announced that it had sold its general image licensing business, including the Corbis Images, Corbis Motion and Veer libraries and their associated assets, to Unity Glory, an affiliate ofVisual China Group. The sale did not include the Corbis Entertainment business, which would remain owned by the company under a new name. Concurrently, it was announced that VCG would exclusively license distribution of the Corbis images library outside China to its rival,Getty Images. VCG has historically served as the exclusive distributor of Getty content in China.[7] Distribution of Corbis content was transitioned to Getty's outlets, and the company manages Corbis's physical archives on behalf of VCG. Of the deal, Getty CEOJonathan Klein remarked that after 21 years in business, it was "lovely to get the milk, the cream, cheese, yogurt and the meat without buying the cow."[8][45]
In May 2016, following the handover of the Corbis images business to Unity Glory and Getty, Corbis Entertainment was renamed Branded Entertainment Network, and re-located its operations to Los Angeles. CEO Gary Shenk stated that the company had organized over 5,000 brand placements in 2015, with clients includingCadillac,Jose Cuervo,Microsoft, and others.[46] In 2018, Ricky Ray Butler, was named CEO.[47] In 2020 BEN won the Agency of the Year award at the10th Streamy Awards.[48]
In February 2023, BEN Group was rebranded as BENlabs.[49]
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