Author Topic: iStock IPO (or actually Getty) (Read 17479 times)

leaf · « **on:** May 22, 2012, 13:25 »

.. wow all this talk of IPO's.. and here's another for Getty
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/owner-getty-images-considering-sale-171517715.html

via StockPhotoTalk

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #1 on:** May 22, 2012, 13:28 »

I thought this was you being humorous! I guess H&F wants their money out and this is their latest take on how to get it.

Neither an IPO nor a KKR buyout address the issue of all that debt H&F burdened Getty with along the way - which is going to make things hard for whoever ends up owning it. A pox on predators like H&F - they walk away with their cash and leave the business with the bill.

gostwyck · « **Reply #2 on:** May 22, 2012, 13:53 »

Here's the FT article in full;

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/589b94b2-a41f-11e1-a701-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vcsRrlg7

rubyroo · « **Reply #3 on:** May 22, 2012, 13:56 »

Blimey... is it IPO season or something?

gostwyck · « **Reply #4 on:** May 22, 2012, 13:59 »

Quote from: rubyroo on May 22, 2012, 13:56

Blimey... is it IPO season or something?

Must be. Facebook started it and that's going really well. Not.

rubyroo · « **Reply #5 on:** May 22, 2012, 14:01 »

Yeah I noticed that...

jjneff · « **Reply #6 on:** May 22, 2012, 14:04 »

I hear Bruce is buying Getty back

cthoman · « **Reply #7 on:** May 22, 2012, 14:10 »

Seems like a good time to start a stock agency and wait for these agencies to tear themselves apart.

drugal · « **Reply #8 on:** May 22, 2012, 14:14 »

"is working with Goldman Sachs (GS) and JP Morgan (JPM) to examine a possible sale or IPO of the business which was taken private four years ago"

they ringed up two other, bigger thieves with bigger knives to help carve the carcass up.

StanRohrer · « **Reply #9 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:00 »

A slightly older interview (pre-IPO talk) with Jonathan Klein. http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2012/03/jonathan-klein-on-getty-images-and-crowdsourcing.html

rinderart · « **Reply #10 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:11 »

Quote from: cthoman on May 22, 2012, 14:10

Seems like a good time to start a stock agency and wait for these agencies to tear themselves apart.

+1000

luissantos84 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:18 »

Quote from: StanRohrer on May 22, 2012, 15:00

A slightly older interview (pre-IPO talk) with Jonathan Klein. http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2012/03/jonathan-klein-on-getty-images-and-crowdsourcing.html

thanks for sharing!

I wonder why JK says how many tons of millions GI have done in the past 17 years but hey they keep 85% (of indies), what a great way to run a business instead of looking for more buyers, they do know how to run a business and we contributors are doing a heck of a job filling their pockets

another cool thing is how he said that clients want content for free but they cannot do that, hell they cannot or they would be so poor

xst · « **Reply #12 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:22 »

KKR - is the one that buying 50% of fotolia.

If they concentrate IS and Fotolia in one business, taking the worst if both - it will be perfect abomination

bunhill · « **Reply #13 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:27 »

Quote from: gostwyck on May 22, 2012, 13:59

Quote from: rubyroo on May 22, 2012, 13:56
Blimey... is it IPO season or something?

Must be. Facebook started it and that's going really well. Not.

It went well for Facebook. They (the company) got their money.

And you could say that the banks got the price right even though it has subsequently dropped. The argument being that if the stock had ended massively up on the day - then Facebook could have got more for it.

lagereek · « **Reply #14 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:34 »

Quote from: gostwyck on May 22, 2012, 13:59

Quote from: rubyroo on May 22, 2012, 13:56
Blimey... is it IPO season or something?

Must be. Facebook started it and that's going really well. Not.

Yep! Bono of U2, invested early and earnt himself 1 billion dollars.

lisafx · « **Reply #15 on:** May 22, 2012, 15:43 »

Quote from: xst on May 22, 2012, 15:22

KKR - is the one that buying 50% of fotolia.

Oh wow. If the same company buys Getty and Fotolia, we might be looking at a huge monopoly. Would it be in conflict with antitrust laws, like the Verizon - T-Mobile deal that the government stopped?

michaeldb · « **Reply #16 on:** May 22, 2012, 17:43 »

I guess only we microstockers could see:
-big investors wanting to invest in microstock
-big investment banks eager do IPOs for microstock companies
and think it is a bad sign for microstock.

We all worry about the future of our business and think about having alternative sources of income. I know I do. So maybe it is a good thing to see that some professional financiers are optimistic about the future of microstock (even if we don't necessarily trust those guys).

luissantos84 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 22, 2012, 17:56 »

Quote from: michaeldb on May 22, 2012, 17:43

We all worry about the future of our business and think about having alternative sources of income. I know I do. So maybe it is a good thing to see that some professional financiers are optimistic about the future of microstock (even if we don't necessarily trust those guys).

there is plenty to cut... IS set the bar quite high, actually low

pro@stockphotos · « **Reply #18 on:** May 22, 2012, 19:01 »

Aahhh the old "pump and dump". The problem is getty ripped of Bruce with a low ball price which was off by a billion or so and then turned around and ripped off H&F with an over pricing of getty. Now istock has pumped up its profits but sales are slumping. Only an idiot would not see the trend. And this trend is not your friend. If they do an ipo they have to reveal all the financial dirty laundry which would be interesting.

gostwyck · « **Reply #19 on:** May 22, 2012, 19:12 »

Quote from: pro@stockphotos on May 22, 2012, 19:01

Aahhh the old "pump and dump". The problem is getty ripped of Bruce with a low ball price which was off by a billion or so and then turned around and ripped off H&F with an over pricing of getty. Now istock has pumped up its profits but sales are slumping. Only an idiot would not see the trend. And this trend is not your friend. If they do an ipo they have to reveal all the financial dirty laundry which would be interesting.

I agree! Looking forward to it.

KarenH · « **Reply #20 on:** May 22, 2012, 19:20 »

Quote from: pro@stockphotos on May 22, 2012, 19:01

Aahhh the old "pump and dump". The problem is getty ripped of Bruce with a low ball price which was off by a billion or so and then turned around and ripped off H&F with an over pricing of getty. Now istock has pumped up its profits but sales are slumping. Only an idiot would not see the trend. And this trend is not your friend. If they do an ipo they have to reveal all the financial dirty laundry which would be interesting.

I'd like to see that. It would be interesting to see how many of the past theories were actually correct.

Sadstock · « **Reply #21 on:** May 22, 2012, 21:13 »

This story just does not add up for me.

Who is going to shell out a whole lot of cash for Getty and its debt? KKR? Private equity firm selling to another private equity firm for what purpose? To consolidate FT and Getty?!? That's why KKR way overpaid for FT, so they could overpay for Getty too? Does KKR have that much better insight into the microstock business to figure out how to make that much more money then H&F could?

An IPO? Investors will be lining up to buy a company with a crappy balance sheet? So they could pay down some of the debt from the IPO but really how much could they get from an IPO? Investors are going to look at what Getty was before H&F purchased them and what they are now, and say not much difference other then more debt and a weak economy.

The timing on this rumor is suspicious to me on the heels of the SS and FT announcements. What I wonder is if H&F/Getty are spreading this rumor, trying to muddy the waters in the microstock market. Maybe hoping to make it more expensive for KKR/FT to buy up other micros or to depress the value of a SS IPO? Should I take off the tinfoil hat now?

stormchaser · « **Reply #22 on:** May 23, 2012, 00:29 »

The KKR move is puzzling - a firm spearheaded the largest leveraged buyout in the the energy sector this year and that has a stock that has flatlined at about 12 bucks for the past 2 years. The only thing that makes sense here is debt financing, but why would TA Associates, who actually owns FO need debt financing? There is some more leveraging going on, so look for the face of micro to shift once again, and probably soon.

lagereek · « **Reply #23 on:** May 23, 2012, 01:58 »

Quote from: cthoman on May 22, 2012, 14:10

Seems like a good time to start a stock agency and wait for these agencies to tear themselves apart.

Absoloutely! now or never! or, are this manipulated actions behind the scenes?

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #24 on:** May 23, 2012, 03:44 »

Quote from: KarenH on May 22, 2012, 19:20

Quote from: pro@stockphotos on May 22, 2012, 19:01
Aahhh the old "pump and dump". The problem is getty ripped of Bruce with a low ball price which was off by a billion or so and then turned around and ripped off H&F with an over pricing of getty. Now istock has pumped up its profits but sales are slumping. Only an idiot would not see the trend. And this trend is not your friend. If they do an ipo they have to reveal all the financial dirty laundry which would be interesting.

I'd like to see that. It would be interesting to see how many of the past theories were actually correct.

Yes. It is interesting (if hard to believe from our perspective) that they appear to have got a valuation that is 60% more than they paid for Getty.
Perhaps they have been very successful in monetising dead content via TS and in pushing buyers into higher price brackets and away from contributror content to the wholly owned stuff. They certainly seemed to be deliberately trying to sabotage iS by using it as a portal to Getty and TS.
TS alone is probably worth as much as Fotolia, and TS is a new creation since the takeover, so all that would be added value. I make almost half as much there as I make on iS and double what I used to get from Fotolia. A huge part of the content there is stuff that they already own.

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Author Topic: iStock IPO (or actually Getty) (Read 17479 times)

leaf

Jo Ann Snover

gostwyck

rubyroo

gostwyck

rubyroo

jjneff

cthoman

drugal

StanRohrer

rinderart

luissantos84

xst

bunhill

lagereek

lisafx

michaeldb

luissantos84

pro@stockphotos

gostwyck

KarenH

Sadstock

stormchaser

lagereek

BaldricksTrousers

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