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\n\tGetty Images\u00a0and Shutterstock, two of the top photo, video, and stock image marketplaces, called off a $3.7 billion merger after hitting a regulatory roadblock in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
\n\tGetty, led by CEO Craig Peters, said on Tuesday that its board of directors unanimously decided to scuttle the deal to merge with its rival after the top regulator in the U.K., the Competition and Markets Authority, required the sale of Shutterstock\u2019s editorial business.<\/p>\n
\n\tGetty\u2019s board viewed that requirement as an apparent non-starter, per a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. The board also stated it intends to hire a financial advisor to assess \u201cstrategic financing alternatives available\u201d in its next steps.<\/p>\n
Getty provides wire service images and video to media and businesses globally, including for most red carpets and film festival premieres. A merger with rival Shutterstock, which had touted an image library of 450 million photos, was intended to consolidate the marketplace for editorial and stock visuals. The combined company, which would\u2019ve been led by Peters, had projected cost synergies of between $150 million and $200 million\u00a0within three years after it combined operations.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe move is illustrative of the type of power that U.K.\u2019s top regulator wields and how it can shape a deal or force it in a direction to be scuttled. And in Getty\u2019s case that was a year and a half after the merger with Shutterstock was unveiled. That sort of regulatory machination is of real interest to Hollywood of late, as David Ellison looks to consolidate the industry\u2019s major studios in his own megadeal.<\/p>\n
Earlier on June 30, Lisa Nandy, who holds the title of U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, indicated that the British government may\u00a0choose\u00a0to intervene in Paramount\u2019s $111 billion takeover attempt of Warner Bros. Discovery. Nandy stated the next stage may be \u201cfor the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess and report to me on whether a relevant merger situation has been created, and any impact this may have on competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Ellison-led Paramount replied that it believes it will close its deal on its previously stated timeline without hitting its own speed bump. \u201cWe are grateful for the continued constructive engagement with all interested government bodies and relevant authorities, including in the UK,\u201d a Paramount rep said. \u201cWe are confident that our proposed transaction does not pose any media plurality issues in the UK and remain confident\u00a0in our stated transaction timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Competition and Markets Authority formally opened its review on June 10 and has set an Aug. 7 deadline for a ruling on the Paramount deal.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for Getty Images, days before it called off the Shutterstock deal, the image giant inked a major pact with OpenAI to license its library across ChatGPT. The initial merger agreement with Shutterstock, unveiled in January 2025, was inked as those platforms were grappling with the emergence of artificial intelligence tools. Now Getty has taken a new path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-1783495251.jpg?w=1024″] Getty Images\u00a0and Shutterstock, two of the top photo, video, and stock image marketplaces, called off a $3.7 billion merger after hitting a regulatory roadblock in the United Kingdom. Getty, led by CEO Craig Peters, said on Tuesday that its board of directors unanimously decided to scuttle the deal to merge with its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2021535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}