16
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Interesting Article from a Pissed Getty Contributor
« on: January 19, 2013, 01:59:07 PM »
Maybe some of those photographers will now spit out the Getty Kool-Aid and stop satanizing ELI and its partners in the fight against copyright trolling. Maybe they'll see we're not against their rights as copyright owners but against Getty's abuses as a "middleman" in the stock photography market.
Getty appears to be undergoing a typical private equity firm takeover process. They're now "trimming the fat" on the payroll and sticking their hands deeper into everyone's pockets — both providers and customers — in order to manipulate the bottom line and make the company look more viable on paper. The next move down the line will be another sale or an IPO.
The trick for them is to find a way to make it look like a viable business model and sell it before the whole thing really crumbles. Their moves to the microstock model betray their lack of faith on the long-term viability of the RM stock photography model.
One happy thought: This last firm that bought them may get stuck with a huge white elephant when the music stops and no one in their right mind will invest in this shell of an industrial dinosaur that Getty has become.
Getty appears to be undergoing a typical private equity firm takeover process. They're now "trimming the fat" on the payroll and sticking their hands deeper into everyone's pockets — both providers and customers — in order to manipulate the bottom line and make the company look more viable on paper. The next move down the line will be another sale or an IPO.
The trick for them is to find a way to make it look like a viable business model and sell it before the whole thing really crumbles. Their moves to the microstock model betray their lack of faith on the long-term viability of the RM stock photography model.
One happy thought: This last firm that bought them may get stuck with a huge white elephant when the music stops and no one in their right mind will invest in this shell of an industrial dinosaur that Getty has become.