What a shame


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Why am I not surprised? 

A company that makes its profit by bleeding its "employees" - i.e. the contributors - to death must go under. Anyone who does not understand that the contributors and their creativity are the foundation for growth must and will go under. Even short-term supposed flights of fancy by shareholders will not change this!

SSTK reached their 52 week low today $24.30. Seems that something is going on? I'm not "smart money" or some big traders or any of those types.

"Stock photography and footage provider Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) will be reporting earnings tomorrow before market hours." Dividend is going to be 33¢ on March 6th.

Is this low price a lack of confidence? I don't understand how the promise from the merger, which is higher than the current trading price, isn't holding up the value?

GETY is at 2.195 right now

I can't understand why Getty in its right mind would want to merge with Shutterstock. Shutterstock's reputational damage is not going to help Getty imo. Merging with Shutterstock Inc would be like acquiring  a white elephant.

It's $100 down from the all time high!

They didn't just shaft the producers and suppliers, they kicked out all the original team that worked so hard to make SS a great place.

They also pissed off customers, just look at their ratings.

Surprised it took wallstreet so long to get it. They kept buying companies to hide they really have no organic plan how to grow their business.

And the ai buzzword won't last forever.

I do understand Getty, taking over SS gives them full control of the editorial market and a combined larger customer group.

They also don't have to compete against each other with lower prices, I am confident prices will rise after the merger.

Quote from: cobalt on February 25, 2025, 00:03
They didn't just shaft the producers and suppliers, they kicked out all the original team that worked so hard to make SS a great place.

Interesting, do you have any insider info from anyone that used to work there before 2020?

I doubt anyone would break their nda to share with outsiders.

But there is this article that gives some insights. While it  only mentions a part of the team, from what I understand many others also left/were encouraged to leave who opposed the brillant new management.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chinese-censorship-or-work-elsewhere-inside-shutterstock-s-free-speech-n1144211

""The culture that we want to build is also one where when leadership makes a decision, we move on. We commit, and we move on," Pavlovsky said at the Dec. 10 internal meeting."

I guess that was not just a strategy  for free speech issues.

Quote from: cobalt on February 25, 2025, 00:03

They also don't have to compete against each other with lower prices, I am confident prices will rise after the merger.

Yes I hope you are right. Not just editorial. As soon as this merger was announced, Adobe stock went down.

SSTK is down, GETY is down. I don't see many people ready to jump into this new plan. Getty just refinanced their debt, which helps a little. SSTK had earnings below expectations and a drop in sold images. They were popular like a fad, when things go up, the advisors sell these stocks to the granny's. SSTK is a dividend stock as well.

When the fad slows and the earnings don't reach expectations and people don't see growth in the company or their future, they are pretty fast to abandon and look for something new and better. You can get GETY shares for $2 and change right now. Last 4 months they have been under $3 and treading water.

I hate to say it, but this is going to be interesting to watch. We aren't in control we aren't even pawns that are involved in the game or the plans.

Closed down at $22.80. Its just $0.80 above it's IPO on 12 October 2012. Down it goes in step with downward earnings.

SS Quarterly report here:
https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-reports-full-year-2024-and-fourth-quarter-financial

Trading today below IPO.

Quote from: Contemporary Dave on February 27, 2025, 14:25
SS Quarterly report here:
https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-reports-full-year-2024-and-fourth-quarter-financial

Thanks

From 2023 to 2024 SSTK lost:

64,000 subscribers (523,000>459,000)
18.7 million Paid Downloads (153.0>134.3)
$32.9 million subscription revenue (351.5>318.6)

The only thing that has improved is "average revenue per customer" (12 months): from $412 to $450

The current stock price value is in line with SSTK's poor financial results.

SSTK $21.38 Monday morning, dividends paid to owners of record.
GETY 2.055

It just doesn't look like anyone important, is looking forward to the merger.

How's this for a composite?

I copied one image with the initial price at $22.00 on 12 October 2021.

Then I copied a second image with the price of $20.81 at close on 3 March 2025.

Imported both images into Photoshop as layers, applied a layer mask on the second image and painted in the closing price to illustrate both prices at IPO and close on 3 March 2025 in a single image.

I wonder if Shutterstock review will accept this work of art as an editorial image?   

Quote from: Pacesetter on February 25, 2025, 23:31
Closed down at $22.80. Its just $0.80 above it's IPO on 12 October 2012. Down it goes in step with downward earnings.

Nice graph, I was looking at that yesterday. The people who got in and then sold when the stock had doubled or tripled, aren't crying. Long ago, I was of the opinion that SSTK was a good $30 stock.

I keep looking at this part of the deal, and can't understand why the price of SSTK isn't higher? "Shutterstock shareholders can choose one of three options at closing: $28.85 in cash per share, 13.67 shares of Getty Images stock per share, or a combination of 9.17 Getty Images shares and $9.50 in cash per Shutterstock share."

Cash = $28.85
or
GETY 2.045 x 13.67 = $27.95
or
(9.17 shares) $18.79 + $9.50 = $28.29

Any of these are at worst $5/$6 better that the cost per share of SSTK. What's missing? Why aren't people buying at $22 to get back $28?

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 04, 2025, 17:20


Any of these are at worst $5/$6 better that the cost per share of SSTK. What's missing? Why aren't people buying at $22 to get back $28?

Proposed merger deals don't always succeed.  The share price of both SSTK and GETY have tanked.   Investors presumably think that there is a substantial risk that GETY will change its mind, and find a way to get out of the deal, or at least revise down the payment terms.

So their stock price exhibited a "reset" in the same way that contributors exhibit a yearly reset....poetic justice in a way.

The entire market is tanking plus there are genuine concerns about trade wars recession.

So not every move is because of bad numbers.

Quote from: cobalt on March 05, 2025, 01:57
The entire market is tanking plus there are genuine concerns about trade wars recession.

So not every move is because of bad numbers.

It's true that there is economic turbulence, but SSTK and GETY have both fallen much more than the general stock market.  As recently as November, GETY shares were over $4, and now under $2.   At the current price, the price/earnings ratio is a modest value of 14.2.

There seem to be concerns that AI will undermine the stock photo market.   I don't personally have experience with AI, but that seems dubious to me. 

Before AI, anybody could have avoided paying for stock photos by having their own camera and going out and making their own picture.  Obviously, it was usually more economic to buy stock.  Is it really different with AI?  Isn't it quite a lot of work to make a good AI image, and so more efficient for users to buy them from a stock agency?

ai is a lot more work than taking images with a mobile phone or downloading a free to use image from flickr or unsplash...

it is an additional medium with its own look and style, so an add on.

any "expert" who blames stock agency share price drops on ai, doesn't understand the industry.

this quarterly report is just another confirmation that ss keeps losing subscribers.

the merger is not yet offically legal, that might be why also getty is tanking more. Ambiguity is not good for share prices.

Once the merger si official and the combined companies offer a road map to how they will integrate each otgher, i think that is when the share price might start to rise.

Unless we get ww3, then...

I imagine Stan and his crew did quite well out of their time at SS, with all their vested stock options when they got out after a couple of years.

SS sucks, sucks big time

Quote from: Uncle Pete on March 04, 2025, 17:20

Quote from: Pacesetter on February 25, 2025, 23:31
Closed down at $22.80. Its just $0.80 above it's IPO on 12 October 2012. Down it goes in step with downward earnings.

Nice graph, I was looking at that yesterday. The people who got in and then sold when the stock had doubled or tripled, aren't crying. Long ago, I was of the opinion that SSTK was a good $30 stock.

I keep looking at this part of the deal, and can't understand why the price of SSTK isn't higher? "Shutterstock shareholders can choose one of three options at closing: $28.85 in cash per share, 13.67 shares of Getty Images stock per share, or a combination of 9.17 Getty Images shares and $9.50 in cash per Shutterstock share."

Cash = $28.85
or
GETY 2.045 x 13.67 = $27.95
or
(9.17 shares) $18.79 + $9.50 = $28.29

Any of these are at worst $5/$6 better that the cost per share of SSTK. What's missing? Why aren't people buying at $22 to get back $28?

$19.55 close on Friday they really crashed