Getty Images buys Photonica West . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
May 13, 2005

Getty Images has announced it will purchase Photonica West from Amana, ending weeks of speculation that had this high-end Japanese-owned stock photography supplier going to Getty's cross-town rival Corbis.

In a more recent development, Getty reportedly has purchased Retrofile, a small collection of historic and vintage photograpy.

The deal will bring the Photonica and Iconica rights-managed collections into the Getty family of stock photo brands. The acquisition should close during Getty's current fiscal quarter, which ends June 30, said Getty Vice President for Communications Deb Trevino. She said directors of both companies have approved the deal.

The Seattle-based Getty Images also said the $51 million cash purchase is only the first phase in a "broader global production and reciprocal distribution relationship" between Getty images and Amana.

It was not immediately clear what the " global production" part of the agreement entailed, but Amana of Japan has always been more than simply a stock photography distributor. It has extensive commercial image production operations which could be leveraged to supply stock photography for both its remaining stock operations in Japan and Getty Images.

Getty said it will enter into distribution agreements with Amana to strengthen Getty's position in the Japanese market. These agreements will have Getty distributing some Amana stock photography in Japan while Amana distributes some Getty content.

Trevino said she could not comment on the production or distribution deals because they "have yet to be developed or, at the least, have not been announced."

The Photonica acquiescing was the second stock distributor purchase announced by Getty in as many months. In April Getty purchased London-based Digital Vision for $165 million ( click here for more on the Digital Vision deal ).

It is not known what the latest Getty acquisition will mean to Corbis, which already has a distribution agreement with Amana. Corbis Japan is an equally-owned joint venture of Corbis and Amana.

However, Trevino said, "It is our expectation that Amana will comply with any agreement they have with Corbis."

As for rumors that Corbis had been planning to buy Photonica, Trevino said, "I wouldn't tie this ( the Getty deal ) to anything specifically to do with Corbis."

There had been published and private speculation that the Corbis deal was delayed by a Getty Images lawsuit against Photonica. Trevino said the Getty-Photonica deal will effectively end the suit, which claimed Photonica's web site used a search approach that was patented by Getty.

In the long run, It is unknown what this will mean to Amana subdistributors like Veer, a North American stock supplier that offers some Photonica images. Veer's Solus brand is currently sold by Photonica in some 40 markets around the world.

Jacqueline Wallace, who is in charge of Veer's international marketing development, said, "We imagine that everything will remain business as usual for the foreseeable future."

Trevino echoed this, saying Getty plans "to maintian contractual obligations and review on an on-going basis."

Wallace noted that Veer has had "an excellent relationship with the management and employees at Photonica."

She added that "We also have a very positive relationship with Getty and have begun to work more closely with a few of our former peers over the last few months with Veer beginning to distribute the (Getty-owned) Photodisc product." (The core of the Veer management is comprised of former Getty employees.)

Trevino said Photonica employees have already been informed that some will be let go because of redundancies in the operations of the two companies. She said Getty Images will retain some of the employees, but could not yet comment on how many.

Getty plans to integrate the Photonica and Iconica brands into the Getty web site "as quickly as possible," Trevino said. She noted that the current Photonica web site is not e-commerce enabled.

The Getty spokesperson said her company is "very excited. It is a collection that we have always had a lot of respect for."

It is known that Getty approached Amana late in the 1990s about purchasing the Photonica collection, but the brand was not then for sale.

The Photonica brand was started 20 years ago by Japanese photographer Hironobu Shindo, who remains chairman of Amana. It was the first truly artistic stock photography brand and helped change the way art buyers saw stock images.

Iconica was launched in October, 2003, as a second brand for the United States and Europe. It appeared to be Amana's attempt to revitalize western sales which seemed to suffer significantly in the new millennium. Unfortunately, Iconica never seemed to catch on the way Photonica did in the 1990s.

Photonica's parent company, Amana, raised over $100 million in an initial public stock offering last year. The company has administrative offices in New York, London and Tokyo.

Getty has also announced a deal to distribute footage from the Universal Studios Film Library. Under the deal, Getty will offer access to footage from films like Bourne Identity, Backdraft, The Mummy and Apollo 13. The clips, ranging from explosions and stunts to nature and buisness, are available as High Definition Video.

 

Getty Images can be found at: http://www.gettyimages.com

Photonica and Iconica can be found at: http://www.photonica.com

Universal's library is at: http://www.gettyimages.com/universalstudios