Getty Images til salgs

Bildebyrået Getty Images, verdens største leverandør av fotografier og video, er til salgs. Prisen kan bli på 1.5 milliarder dollar, dog med forbehold om at markedet for risikokapital ikke er det beste i USa for tiden.

Getty ble grunnlagt så sent som i 1995 in Seattle og har en base på hele 3.2 milliarder bilder.

Started by Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty, a scion of the J. Paul Getty oil fortune, the company began striking deals and acquiring the photo archives of companies like PhotoDisc. Its growth began to skyrocket with later acquisitions like its $183 million purchase of Eastman Kodak’s Image Bank in 1999.

But the rise of digital photography and the Web created a host of competitors that charged as little as a dollar for an image. Recent events — from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, to the latest foibles of the entertainer Britney Spears — have led to a surging popularity of low-quality but on-the-scene photos, many taken by cellphone cameras.

Getty Images Up for Sale, Could Fetch $1.5 Billion - New York Times