Shutterstock + Getty

Just-B · January 11, 2025, 2:39am

I received the following message from Shutterstock today.

To our Customers,

As we start the New Year, we’re excited to share some news with you: Shutterstock and Getty Images have announced plans to merge. This news impacts Shutterstock and its family of brands including TurboSquid, Pond5, PremiumBeat, GIPHY and Envato.

Once the transaction is closed, we expect this merger to increase our ability to invest in new content, live coverage, technologies and capabilities, services, and support to meet the ever-changing needs of our large and small customers worldwide. We also expect to provide our customers with simplified access to a larger range of diverse, high-quality, ethically-sourced licensable content to fuel their storytelling and the impact of their work.

While we expect the merger to take some time to finalize, we wanted to keep you updated on the big news and reinforce that your current Shutterstock services and solutions will continue without interruption. For now, Shutterstock and Getty Images remain independent companies and it’s business as usual until closing. We are committed to keeping you informed as things progress and will continue to deliver the quality, value, and partnership you already know and expect from Shutterstock. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your direct contact at Shutterstock or our support team.

Thank you for the continued trust and support. We are excited about the opportunities this merger brings to help you succeed and look forward to embarking on this next chapter together.

Paul Hennessy
CEO, Shutterstock, Inc.

Steve_O · January 11, 2025, 3:42pm

Interesting. Getty also owns iStockphoto. I wonder if Shutter and iStok will continue to operate as two separate companies. Are there any other serious players in the microstock world?

PrintDriver · January 13, 2025, 1:00pm

At least it’s still owned by Getty and still located in the US. (Until Mt. Ranier blows up.)

I still haven’t forgiven Bill Gates for selling Corbis to China. A lot of historical images that were at Corbis are no longer available without a lot of hoop jumping, if at all (I had to attempt a re-license on a few a while back, and it wasn’t pleasant.) At least he let Getty buy the Bettman collection. (I think?) The Bettman is/was a great historical collection.