Shutterstock Chief Technology Officer James Chou (center) rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on February 14, 2014 in New York.
D Deepa Supil | Getty Images
Getty Images said on Tuesday it would merge with a rival Shutterstock Creating a $3.7 billion stock-image behemoth geared toward the age of artificial intelligence, the deal is likely to draw antitrust scrutiny.
The move comes as the licensed visual content industry faces threats from generative artificial intelligence tools, such as Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E, that can generate images and videos based on simple text prompts from users.
Under the deal, Shutterstock shareholders can choose to receive $28.80 in cash or 13.67 Getty Images shares for each Shutterstock share they own, or a combination of 9.17 Getty Images shares and $9.50 in cash for each Shutterstock share they own.
Shutterstock shares rose 26.5% in premarket trading, while Getty Images gained 50.2%. Both companies have seen their stock prices decline for at least the past four years as rising use of action cameras has led to a decline in demand for stock photography.
Getty Images CEO Craig Peters said the deal would help both companies enhance “content offerings, expand event coverage and provide new technology.”
Peters will serve as CEO of the combined company, in which Getty Images investors will own approximately 54.7% and Shutterstock shareholders will own the remainder.
Getty competes with Reuters and the Associated Press to provide photos and videos for editorial use.
The deal is expected to generate annual cost savings of $150 million to $200 million by the combined company’s third year.
The company will be named Getty Images Holdings and will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GETY.”
