Reuters Buys Action Images . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
September 19, 2005

The Reuters news service has purchased London-based Action Images, a deep collection of sports photography that includes more than 7 million images of which 1.5 million are online.

In a brief statement, Reuters said the acquisitions will allow it to expand its photography offering into the commercial stock photography market. The company said it will also expand the reach of Action Images beyond the British market, in which it is currently strongest.

Action Images founder David Jacobs will continue to manage the photo company while Monique Villa, global head of news and pictures at Reuters, takes over as Action Images chairman.

Getty Images has been a major player in the sports imagery market. Getty purchased Allsport in the late 1990s and is a major supplier of professional sports imagery in the United States. WireImage and Getty Images share the right to shoot and market stock images from current National Football League games.

Reuters has built its business by providing financial information, but also supplies news, still images and video to businesses outside the financial sector. It has 600 photographers producing some 10,000 images each day.

Action Images, will use the news and graphics products of Reuters to create multi-media products for customers. In addition, Action Images will continue to build its own content. The stock photo supplier has photographic archives of dating back 50 years.

Reuters already has a small stock photography service called Reuters Pictures. The service offers news, sports, entertainment and fashion images. It includes a rights-clearance service since most news imagery cannot be used in advertising without model and property releases.

 

Information about Reuters can be found at: http://about.reuters.com/home

Reuters Pictures is at: http://about.reuters.com/pictures/index.aspx

Action Images is at: http://www.actionimages.com