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February 26, 2008
Getty Images In My Rearview Window
This Monday the private equity firm of Hellman & Friedman bought Getty for a cool $2.4 billion. You can read more about the details as they were released yesterday from Hellman & Friedman.As a refugee from the heady Internet days and the Telecom mergers there are a few things I have learned after being bought, sold and merged more times than I can recall. First off, what this really means probably won't get sorted out until later this year or early in 2009. The deal isn't supposed to close until the second quarter of this year.
Secondly, don't ever buy the phrase, "we are different, a merger of equals." I laugh when I hear that one, there is always a buyer and the one being bought. In this case Hellman & Friedman bought Getty, we won't know what the "New Getty" looks like and how it operates.
Photographer and blogger John Harrington has been following Getty's moves and photo industry impact over the past couple of years and did some "crystal balling." Today he posted his insights which on the whole I agree with.
Hang on for another year of big changes in the business of photography.
Posted by Allen Clark at February 26, 2008 10:45 AM