Author Topic: Confirmed: VCG will acquire Corbis (Read 17793 times)

Yay Images Billionaire · « **Reply #50 on:** January 27, 2016, 00:36 »

What is the actual deal? This article says VCG are only buying Corbis assets, not acquiring the company itself.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/25/technology/bill-gates-corbis/index.html

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #51 on:** January 27, 2016, 01:34 »

Quote from: imagesbykenny on January 27, 2016, 00:36

What is the actual deal? This article says VCG are only buying Corbis assets, not acquiring the company itself.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/25/technology/bill-gates-corbis/index.html

It also say that Corbis owns all the photos it is transferring, including Tank Man which originated from an Associated Press photographer. I don't know if AP sold tank man to Corbis or not, but they sure as hell don't own my content. If Corbis has full rights to Tank Man and has transferred them to China, then I wouldn't expect it to continue being available via Getty.

cobalt · « **Reply #52 on:** January 27, 2016, 07:09 »

So they bought corbis to influence what the media will see. Although it is true that critical images are probably also available from other companies or the internet, the question is which media agency are chinese journalists allowed to use. If a newspaper restricts them to visuals from vcg, this becomes a useful way of censorship.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #53 on:** January 27, 2016, 18:22 »

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/business/media/with-corbis-sale-tiananmen-protest-images-go-to-chinese-media-company.htm

The story points out that many of the images are not owned by Corbis, they just have the right to license them. There's also some soothing words from VCG, whether or not that means anything in the long run - the plan is the plan until the plan changes being the mantra of many large organizations...

KerinF · « **Reply #54 on:** January 27, 2016, 21:28 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on January 22, 2016, 16:02

It's not news that Jonathan Klein is a miserable [delete lots of bad words & thoughts], but this tweet about the Corbis acquisition is just hateful:

https://twitter.com/JonathanDKlein/status/690559911252471808

"Almost 21 years but got it. Lovely to get the milk, the cream, cheese, yoghurt and the meat without buying the cow."

KerinF · « **Reply #55 on:** January 27, 2016, 21:30 »

(Oh darn, am I having a luddite moment - I was trying to reply to the quote about Klein's Tweet.) I suspect that the real reason he later deleted this tweet was not because he took on board any lack of sensitivity around his comments, but because his lawyers told him it was just asking for anti-trust authorities to take a look at the deal...if a transaction looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck (or in this case, a cow), fair chance it is a duck (or cow). Given VCG and Getty's already existing commercial relationship, this whole thing seems to smack of a way to ensure assets are held by a non-US company, to try and circumvent anti-trust laws,

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #56 on:** January 28, 2016, 01:57 »

Exactly my thoughts.

Carmen · « **Reply #57 on:** January 28, 2016, 04:25 »

They did not sell splash to the chinese, but splash is empty, all photographers and executives that had a minimum experience in the business are gone, only bean counters are left to run a boat that is clearly sinking. Corporate BS killed Corbis and will soon kill Splash as well. Getty will be owned by the chinese in a very near future.