Getty Images Buys Jupitermedia’s Online Photo Biz for $96M

It’s one of the biggest acquisitions of the year in the Northwest. Getty Images, the Seattle-based creator and distributor of online photos and video, is buying New York-based Jupitermedia’s online images business. The acquisition of Jupiterimages is worth $96 million in cash, and will help Jupitermedia pay off its bank debt, according to a statement today.

This is at least the second bid that Getty has made to acquire its smaller rival; a proposed deal in early 2007 fell through. Meanwhile, 2008 has been a busy year for Getty. In February, the company announced it was being acquired by an affiliate of private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The $2.4 billion acquisition was completed in July.

Getty Images was founded in 1995, and was among the first companies to license images via the Web. As of 2006, Getty was an $800 million dollar public company with 21 offices worldwide. Today’s acquisition would seem to solidify the now-private firm’s position in the online stock-photo and multimedia marketplace.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.