Robert Krausankas brought to my attention the recent sale of Corbis Images. I then followed up with some online research. According to online articles, Corbis Images was sold to Chinese firm, Visual China Group. They, in turn, have signed a distribution agreement with Getty Images to make the Corbis Images available to the U.S. through the Getty operation.
http://petapixel.com/2016/01/22/corbis-images-sold-by-bill-gates-to-china-visual-group/http://variety.com/2016/digital/asia/bill-gates-corbis-images-sold-to-visual-china-1201687743/http://time.com/4190784/image-licensing-war-is-over/http://www.geekwire.com/2016/bill-gates-sells-corbis-images-to-visual-china-group-which-strikes-distribution-deal-with-getty/Chairman Jonathan Klein then pissed off a few Twitter users with his gloating tweet.
http://petapixel.com/2016/01/27/this-is-what-getty-images-founder-had-to-say-about-the-sale-of-corbis-images/ Under his reign as CEO, Klein is fairly notorious in trying to orchestrate a monopolistic takeover of the stock photo industry by buying out (and incurring massive Getty debt) several smaller stock photo companies a number of years ago. However, he learned the hard way you really can't buy out the Internet when it comes to digital photographic images especially when new ones are being pumped out by the millions each year by new users and photographers.
It would appear that the the U.S. Corbis Images copyright enforcement operation will likely get folded into the Getty Images operation. For those that don't know it, Getty hides and operates behind the License Compliance Services (LCS) operation also.
It looks like the Getty extortion money machine will be getting bigger. They have the main Getty operation, LCS operation, and quite possible the Corbis operation.
As I have repeatedly said, with the exception of some elite speciality and historical images most of their so-called assets will continue to depreciate. Big media companies may be willing to pay a lot for certain images but the vast majority of regular people, small business owners, and website owners will never buy into those images without a steep discount.
People inherently know that images and photos (while desirable) are simply not as valuable as they once were before.
Corbis Images would never have been sold if they were doing well. They were probably hurting and losing money which necessitated that sale to the Chinese company. It is clear Getty wanted to acquire Corbis (based on Klein's remarks) but could never buy it. Getty of late has been dealing with heavy debt and leverage issues.
They are in a poor position to acquire any other businesses. They can't even fully digest the ones they made years ago. Getty is still dealing with a big case of financial indigestion. And we at ELI are doing our small part to make sure they don't ever fully recover.
Topic: Corbis Images Sold to Chinese Co. Then Licenses Distribution to Getty Images (Read 2414 times)