Quote from: sharpshot on September 30, 2013, 11:32

Quote from: dirkr on September 30, 2013, 11:25

Quote from: sharpshot on September 30, 2013, 07:11

But if he doesn't hold the majority of shares, can't someone else buy them and remove him as CEO?  Just trying to bring back the insomnia

Theoretically yes. But in reality they would need to buy almost all other shares - which means they would have to convince all other existing shareholders and would have to pay a huge premium.
With Oringer still holding above 45% that is very unlikely to happen.

There's still a risk though and the way Getty has been bought twice, I'm finding it hard to understand why he would risk losing SS when he could of sold some shares, made millions and kept 51%?

Maybe he is just taking out part of the money he has in the company to hedge his position. He may be a billionaire by the current share price of Shutterstock, but that's paper money. Unless Shutterstock pays out part of their earnings as dividend (I don't know, haven't really followed the stock) he can't buy anything with his billion.
So now he has the opportunity to sell a (small) part of his total shares and have 140+ million in the bank - real cash, not "just" shares.
If the stock moves further up - he still has close to 16 million of it.
If it goes down - with 140 million in the bank, he still will not have to ask for social welfare.
Sounds like a wise decision to me.

Couldn't he of taken something like 50 million and still kept 51%?  I still don't understand it and hope he has somehow cleverly retained control of SS.  Having seen what happened to other site owners when they gave up their majority share, I hoped Jon would keep his.

Somehow I just can't picture Xanox fitting in with the arty crowd   There are some that can sell art photos just on their merit but I think it's much easier if you can talk the BS.  I like listening to some talentless artists because they have convinced themselves that they are good and can convince others.  I think some of them would make even more money in business.  Sometimes I struggle to believe they aren't acting because how can anyone believe what they are saying is real?

Quote from: sharpshot on September 30, 2013, 06:14

If you look at how much the hedge funds paid for Getty, I think he could of easily made as much or more selling SS privately as he has from selling shares.

Yes but that was in early 2008  . back than even small house was 3-4 time more expensive than the actual value....

Did you forget the sale for much more in 2012?
http://www.ibtimes.com/getty-images-sold-33b-top-management-carlyle-group-747716

I don't think that's correct because I read that he was a paper billionaire and selling that percentage would of made much more money.  I hope he's manged to pocket lots of cash and keep control of the company.  I also hope someone can explain how that happened because this sort of business is a mystery to me.  There's 3 million more shares, he sells 2,530,000 and makes lots of money.  The share price rockets.  I don't get it but hopefully someone here can explain how that works.

Thanks James.  Most of the microstock sites seem to credit us almost instantly for most sales.  Would be good if alamy could take instant payments for the lower priced licences.

I hope vectors are soon opened up for everyone but I'm still disappointed that alamy haven't done that for video clips.  I don't see the point in not utilising all contributors and only offering buyers a small collection that isn't going to appeal to them.

Perhaps SS will buy another site but I'm sure the ones that are worth it would of turned down several offers by now. 

The big jump in the SS share price makes me more concerned that they are the target.  If they aren't eating the small fish, a big fish might eat them

The big microstock sites seem reasonably safe from new competition because buyers don't seem to like moving much.  Look at the efforts istock have made to get rid of their buyers but they still have some

So when you know who left, it would of been a good time to buy SSTK.  I didn't think one portfolio was going to hinder them much.

It's true microstock is in danger of becoming microscopic, one reason is to be honest the global economy has taken a big hit the last 4-5 years.. Almost everyone in almost every industry, co., and family is feeling it.

Shouldn't that help microstock, as the prices are cheaper than Getty. Corbis, alamy and the other traditional sites?  I don't think the big microstock sites have had much trouble in the economic downturn.  Some of the small ones that started late and had to borrow too much money have gone but that was down to their poor business decisions.

Thanks, I'll reply to that thread in the new forum.

Honestly speaking I like DT because of their Credit Sales. But what ever I do it's not give me a reasonable grow at all. Here is my stats:

           Online  Refused  Acceptance ratio:        Sales    Revenue     RPD
Sep 12    1        5             16.70%                    21      $29.64       $1.41
Oct 12    1         3             25.00%                    23      $21.89       $0.95
Nov 12    6        7             46.20%                    18      $25.42       $1.41
Dec 12    1        1             50.00%                    17       $21.77      $1.28
Jan 13     7        0            100.00%                   24       $37.33     $1.56
Feb 13    5         3            62.50%                     26       $26.22     $1.01
Mar 13    1        31           3.10%                      18       $21.26      $1.18
Apr 13    5         2            71.40%                     27      $44.16      $1.64
May 13   1         0            100.00%                   26       $44.50      $1.71
Jun 13    15       1            93.80%                     15       $39.53      $2.64
Jul 13     48       3            94.10%                     26       $37.80      $1.45
Aug 13   32      17            65.30%                    26       $46.22      $1.78
Sep 13   52       8             86.70%                    23       $27.08      $1.18

P.S. But what's interesting I got almost the same money this September 2013 and the September 2012. But I almost doubled my port since than. And the closer I'm to the ~95-98$ to paid out the longer it takes to get to 100$.

Interesting, I've uploaded very little in the past year and have made more this month than September 2012.  It does look like your overall earnings have increased in recent months, it could just be a blip this month.

They seem to be rejecting less now, so I'm starting to upload again.

I used to quite like Veer but they've become a bad site for contributors.  Low sales, not much communication here anymore and various problems with uploads have put me off them.  A new gimmick is unlikely to help.  They had a great chance to become one of the big selling microstcok sites but I think they wasted it.

I had 2 nice EL sales recently.  Good to get to the cash out level with 2 sales.  I know that doesn't happen often but it makes it worth uploading for me.

I still get a trickle of sales each month.  Will continue to upload because it takes very little time and they're probably doing well enough to keep going.

If the Shutterstock share price is anything to go buy, there's still a lot of growth in the microstock business.  I see my images being used for lots of business purposes, not mainly entertainment blogs and websites.

I hope Yaymicro can think again about this streaming offering.  I wouldn't mind sites doing something like that instead of offering free images.  To only have the option of having all my portfolio included seems like madness.  I'd rather experiment with Stipple, who have been doing something similar.  I haven't bothered with them because I can't find any photographers saying they're making money with them.