I hope they will be selling soon but I don't see how Thinkstock is going to attract buyers?  It looks like they have ruined istock and that was potentially their best asset.  I still don't see how pushing istock buyers to Thinkstock and rival sites is going to make Getty stronger.  Wont that be a big negative for potential buyers?

I hope they will be selling soon but I don't see how Thinkstock is going to attract buyers?  It looks like they have ruined istock and that was potentially their best asset.  I still don't see how pushing istock buyers to Thinkstock and rival sites is going to make Getty stronger.  Wont that be a big negative for potential buyers?

Well yes, Istock should have been the jewel in Getty's crown ... but unfortunately they broke it. The fact that they're having to rely on TS for some good news demonstrates just how desperate they are to find any.

Having thought about it I'm virtually certain that Getty is now being actively marketed for an upcoming sale. I don't see any glimmer of hope for Istock in that scenario either. Any new owner would almost certainly leave the Getty team in charge for the foreseeable future and so nothing can be expected to change to the benefit of Istock. Istock is still f**ked.

Maybe it's going to be one of those "istock was great, but now we've got ThinkStock!" deals, trying to spin it like istock is past success, but ThinkStock is the future.

Which of course I find extremely debatable anyway, as ThinkStock has yet to show anything that would lure away the established base of buyers from other subscription properties. The only way I see TS ever becoming a real threat to SS or anyone else is if they can offer a competitive price. And as we all know, ThinkStock is owned by a company that is very averse to dropping prices and typically prefers to always increase them.

Hopefully they take TS down the same road they took istock and price themselves out of the market.

Given this rather odd PR pat on the back for themselves, I find it amusing that I still have a grand total of 18 images out of over 2,500 of my port on TS/photos.com. Having pissed off indies (those of us not voluntarily in the PP anyway, and possibly those who were in at the prospect of a reduced share of the take in the future) by forcing us into the PP they then can't get the content migrated.

Perhaps they'll have that 10 million total when Logos go live, PNG support is added and ....

Given this rather odd PR pat on the back for themselves, I find it amusing that I still have a grand total of 18 images out of over 2,500 of my port on TS/photos.com.

don�t remember when but back in 2011 I had to "remove" all my files from PP (waited a week and add them again once they had somekind of bug) after that files were migrated quite fast but still don�t have all of them there.. perhaps you need to do the same, if you want to of course

What I find interesting about this PR is where they've chosen to release it __ to the financial world rather than to the image buying world. Is their real objective to advertise 'Getty the business' itself? Could this be the start of a series of good news stories as H&F attempt to offload Getty during 2012?

Oh wow.  Very interesting choice of venue.  It seems they are targeting buyers, but not stock image buyers...

Quote from: gostwyck on January 24, 2012, 04:55

What I find interesting about this PR is where they've chosen to release it __ to the financial world rather than to the image buying world. Is their real objective to advertise 'Getty the business' itself? Could this be the start of a series of good news stories as H&F attempt to offload Getty during 2012?

Oh wow.  Very interesting choice of venue.  It seems they are targeting buyers, but not stock image buyers...

Actually, the press release was distributed all over the place via PRNewswire, and there are image buyer type websites that picked it up. 

Press release from Getty on The Wall Street Journal's 'MarketWatch' site;

What I find interesting about this PR is where they've chosen to release it __ to the financial world rather than to the image buying world. Is their real objective to advertise 'Getty the business' itself? Could this be the start of a series of good news stories as H&F attempt to offload Getty during 2012?

How many years have you been predicting this sale coming any day now?

As for the increase in files, it's kind of sad that the truth wasn't told. iStock independents played a large role in the increase as their option for leaving files out of the partner program was dismissed and they were held hostage, financially blackmailed into submission, while their portfolios were moved to Thinkstock. Yes we did have an option, have everything moved to ThinkStock and take a cut in pay to 15% or LEAVE! That's not much of a choice, was it?

Come on Gostwyck after five years or more of you saying, they are going to turn over IS soon, this is just a way of preparing it for sale. You aren't going to say, I told you so if they finally do? I mean, I predict an Earthquake in California... The Yankees will win the world series again, and some day Getty will be sold.

Considering the consolidation, the gobbling up of more agencies, the partner program expansion, it's bound to happen. But not until there's a profit and something to sell. The drop in sales on IS and fall of Getty, isn't exactly making it a hot property? Only way the sale will be soon is if they take a loss and get out of it.

Quote from: RacePhoto on January 24, 2012, 15:21

Quote from: gostwyck on January 24, 2012, 04:55

Press release from Getty on The Wall Street Journal's 'MarketWatch' site;

What I find interesting about this PR is where they've chosen to release it __ to the financial world rather than to the image buying world. Is their real objective to advertise 'Getty the business' itself? Could this be the start of a series of good news stories as H&F attempt to offload Getty during 2012?

How many years have you been predicting this sale coming any day now?

...
Come on Gostwyck after five years or more of you saying, they are going to turn over IS soon...

H&F acquired Getty in July 2008 (announced Feb 2008) - so they haven't even owned them for five years yet. Many articles suggested a 3-5 year time frame, typical for private equity to hold the company. The late-2010 dividend recapitalization ($500 million to H&F) was a little cash to soften the blow that they couldn't sell Getty yet. I don't know who would buy Getty from H&F, but I'm sure they want to keep the image of the company nicely polished in case someone comes along who's interested.

Someone forgot to tell them to keep things polished. Looks like all they have done is throw mud on it, and forget to keep it clean and lubricated.

Quote from: RacePhoto on January 24, 2012, 15:21

Quote from: gostwyck on January 24, 2012, 04:55

Press release from Getty on The Wall Street Journal's 'MarketWatch' site;

What I find interesting about this PR is where they've chosen to release it __ to the financial world rather than to the image buying world. Is their real objective to advertise 'Getty the business' itself? Could this be the start of a series of good news stories as H&F attempt to offload Getty during 2012?

How many years have you been predicting this sale coming any day now?

...
Come on Gostwyck after five years or more of you saying, they are going to turn over IS soon...

H&F acquired Getty in July 2008 (announced Feb 2008) - so they haven't even owned them for five years yet. Many articles suggested a 3-5 year time frame, typical for private equity to hold the company. The late-2010 dividend recapitalization ($500 million to H&F) was a little cash to soften the blow that they couldn't sell Getty yet. I don't know who would buy Getty from H&F, but I'm sure they want to keep the image of the company nicely polished in case someone comes along who's interested.

Someone forgot to tell them to keep things polished. Looks like all they have done is throw mud on it, and forget to keep it clean and lubricated.

My mistake it just seems like five years, in fact Gostwyck has only been here since July of 2008 also. OK I'll revise it to, "this is a sign that getty will be sold soon..." and we've been reading that, over and over, for four years? Is that better? Predicting the inevitable isn't much of a feat.

You know well that I'm no IS blind supporter. I was never part of the Horay gang, still don't know what a Lypse really is (or why?) and I haven't really followed the forum soap opera of who's who up top, writing us BS messages this month, or what mod is a dirty rotten scoundrel for closing a thread.  

I just prefer the facts, perhaps a somewhat unbiased attack on their behavior for the way they treat contributors. The habit of every thread becoming hijacked into "Why I hate IS thread" or every move they make gets turned into why the big H&F BTards are screwing the little guys, takes away from the credibility and value of the actual reasons why Getty has been in a downward spiral, heading for a crash, no landing.

I also don't resent the Exclusives, they are more US than they are Them.

With that, I try to only write in forums where I have images at that agency. Doesn't mean anyone else can't have their opinion of a site, even though they don't have images there or any interest financially. Doesn't stop me from posting now and then in some places where I dropped out, but I don't spend my day, looking for reasons to write hate messages about site "X" just because I'm a jilted lover. And that's where some of the IS people are coming from. Anger over IS turning on us when all we did was care and feed them.

Wrong on all counts matey-bollocks. They haven't yet owned Getty for 4 years and it wasn't me that said it anyway. Actually it was Klein in his interview with The Times that predicted 3-5 years. You want to change that dodgy diet you're on __ it is clearly affecting your memory and grasp of basic facts.

Anyway (and you can quote me on this) H&F will sell Getty during 2012 and they will take a substantial kicking on it. Their capital is wasting away whilst better opportunities pass them by.

I see you've run out of rational things to say, so you've gone into name calling and speaking in tongues? 


Occupy Getty