Getty Images

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Getty Images, Inc. NYSE: GYI is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington.

It is the leading supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 70 million still images and illustrations and more than 30,000 hours of stock film footage. It targets three markets — creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate communication departments for other businesses.

Getty has distribution offices around the world and continues to capitalize on the Internet and CD-ROM collections for distribution. The company has also begun offering custom photo services for corporate clients.

1 History
2 Competition
3 Acquisitions
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

In 1993, Mark Getty and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein co-founded Getty Investments LLC, which today is the principal shareholder of Getty Images. Mark Getty is the company's chairman.

In September 1997, Getty Communications as it was called at the time, merged with PhotoDisc, Inc. to form Getty Images.

The Getty family owns about 20% of the company.

[edit] Competition

There are dozens of companies selling stock photography who compete with Getty, but the two largest companies are Jupitermedia Corporation, a public company formerly known as Internet.com, and Corbis, a private company controlled by Bill Gates. These three — Getty, Jupiter and Corbis — are in the process of "rolling-up" the stock photo business by buying out the many family-owned businesses that created the field. In recent months, Getty bought out Digital Vision, istockphoto.com, and Stockbyte, and Jupiter bought Comstock and PictureArts.