Getty Images and Shutterstock, two of the largest stock image, video and stock image marketplaces, have called off a $3.7 billion merger after hitting a regulatory hurdle in the UK.
Getty, led by CEO Craig Peters, said on Tuesday that its board had unanimously decided to cancel a merger deal with its rival after the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s top regulator, ordered the sale of Shutterstock’s editorial business.
Getty’s board of directors deemed the requirement apparently unprincipled, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. The board also stated that it intends to appoint a financial advisor to evaluate “available strategic financing alternatives” in its next steps.
Getty provides cross-agency images and video to media outlets and businesses globally, including most red carpets and film festival premieres. The merger with rival Shutterstock, which promoted an image library of 450 million images, was intended to unify the market for editorial and stock visuals. The combined company, which would have been led by Peters, expected costs to range between $150 million and $200 million within three years after its combined operations.
The move demonstrates the kind of power the UK’s top regulator has and how it can shape a deal or force it in a direction that must be thwarted. This has become a real topic of interest for Hollywood recently, as David Ellison looks to incorporate the industry’s major studios into his mega-deal.
Earlier on June 30, Lisa Nandy, who holds the position of British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, indicated that the British government may choose to intervene in Paramount’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $111 billion. Nandy said the next stage could be “for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess and report back to me on whether a relevant merger situation has been created, and any impact this might have on competition”.
Ellison-led Paramount responded that it believed it would close its deal on its previously announced timeline without hitting its own speed bump. “We are grateful for the continued constructive engagement with all interested government agencies and relevant authorities, including in the United Kingdom,” a Paramount representative said. “We are confident that our proposed transaction does not pose any multimodal issues in the UK and we remain confident in the announced transaction timeline.”
The Competition and Markets Authority formally opened its review on June 10 and set a deadline of August 7 to rule on the Paramount deal.
As for Getty Images, days before the Shutterstock deal was cancelled, the photo giant signed a major agreement with OpenAI to license its library via ChatGPT. The initial merger agreement with Shutterstock, which was unveiled in January 2025, was signed while those platforms were grappling with the rise of artificial intelligence tools. Now Getty has taken a new path.
