{"id":644455,"date":"2026-10-12T20:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/644455\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T20:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:54:15","slug":"getty-images-to-file-for-bankruptcy-go-private-in-restructuring-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/644455\/","title":{"rendered":"Getty Images to File for Bankruptcy, Go Private In Restructuring Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter abandoning a $3.7 billion merger with rival Shutterstock in late June over a regulatory roadblock, Getty Images<\/a> now plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and go private in partnership with Charles Koch\u2019s investment firm.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the company plots an overhaul, it says that there will be no impact on operations, employees, partners and vendors. It plans to undergo a prepackaged Chapter 11 process shortly and emerge from restructuring by the end of the year. Getty provides wire service photography and video to news outlets and businesses globally, including most red carpets and film festival premieres.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June, Getty CEO Craig Peters said that its board of directors decided to scrap the deal to merge with Shutterstock after the top regulator in the U.K., the Competition and Markets Authority, required the sale of Shutterstock\u2019s editorial business. Getty, which is focused on growing its core editorial business, viewed that as a non-starter.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring its latest earnings call in August, Peters said the company had spent \u201cmore than $100 million across professional fees and financing costs in pursuit of what we believe will be a strategic transaction\u201d with Shutterstock that ultimately didn\u2019t go through. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt the time, Getty had hired Guggenheim Securities to seek strategic financing alternatives in its standalone path. That resulted in the Koch team arriving to provide new financing (Koch Equity Development has been a backer of Getty since 2018, after making a $500 million preferred equity investment that year).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company disclosed<\/a> in an investor presentation on Monday that its iStock eCommerce business has seen \u201cdeclining agency demand and disruption,\u201d presumably due to the rapid adoption of AI tools and products that have made stock image creation easy.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet Getty projects growth in its core editorial image unit, forecasting that the division that\u2019s powered by news images (i.e. real photos of actual events that have occurred), will grow from $369 million to $400 million by 2029. <\/p>\n

\n\tGetty CFO Jennifer Leyden had said in August that annual subscribers fell from 321,000 to 241,000 over the prior year due to a \u201cdeliberate strategy to deemphasize lower-value acquisition channels, including the discontinuation of our iStock free trial program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow it will be leaning even further into its archive and news photography-driven business. \u201cThis transformational transaction is underpinned by the strength of the business and the significant growth potential we see ahead,\u201d said Mark Getty, co-founder and chairman of the Board. \u201cI am pleased to continue our strong partnership with Koch Equity Development and the lender groups to provide capital structure improvements that will enable us to build on our solid foundation and seize new growth opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAffiliates of Koch Equity Development have pledged up to $533 million of new equity to help the image provider go from a publicly traded firm to setting itself up as a private company. A Getty spokesperson reiterates to The Hollywood Reporter that layoffs will not be part of the restructuring plans.<\/p>\n

\n\tGetty CEO Peters said of the deal, \u201cCore pillars of our success are the longstanding commitment of our customers and partners, the deep expertise and creativity of our team and content contributors, and the uniqueness of our archive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMike Harris, senior managing director and co-head at Koch Equity, added: \u201cWe remain confident in the company\u2019s future and fully support this transaction alongside the Getty family. This equity investment will provide Getty Images with a firm financial foundation and greater flexibility to continue investing in its employees, customers, contributors, and future growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After abandoning a $3.7 billion merger with rival Shutterstock in late June over a regulatory roadblock, Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,1077,85,46],"class_list":["post-644455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-getty-images","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}