| To: Billy Barooo who wrote () | 4/20/1999 8:06:00 PM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images Adds John C. Gonzalez to Business Development Team; Gonzalez's Significant Technology Business Development Experience to Help Drive Getty's Expansion into E-Commerce Space
PR Newswire, Tuesday, April 20, 1999 at 18:21
SEATTLE, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), the
largest global visual content provider, today announced the addition of John
C. Gonzalez as Vice President of Strategic Relations. Gonzalez has 16 years
of experience in business development in the technology area, strategic
marketing and product management.
Gonzalez will be responsible for identifying, negotiating and integrating
co-operative business relationships with technology, content and marketing
partners. The company, which owns or controls more than 30 million images and
13,000 hours of film footage, entered the e-commerce space in early 1998 with
its acquisition of PhotoDisc, a pioneer in the digital delivery of imagery.
"John's impressive business development skills add great depth to our new
business team. His proven ability to identify and manage technology-based
opportunities and relationships will serve us well as we continue to migrate
our business to an e-commerce platform," said Jonathan D. Klein, Co-founder
and Chief Executive Officer of Getty Images.
Prior to joining Getty Images, Gonzalez served as Director of Business
Development for Extensis Corporation where he was responsible for the
identification, acquisition and integration of technology and business
opportunities, with a focus on the creative professional, pre-press and
printing industries.
From 1995 to 1997, Gonzalez was an independent business development
consultant, contracting with R.R. Donnelley, In Focus Systems, Health Care
Capital, Extensis Corporation and other technology companies. Gonzalez has
also worked with In Focus Systems, Inc., New Software, Inc., Sequent Computer
Systems, Inc., Saba Technologies, Inc. and Intel Corporation.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), with 30 million photographs and more
than 13,000 hours of film, is the leading international provider of visual
content to a diverse range of professionals in advertising and graphic design,
magazine, book and newspaper publishing, broadcasting, production, and new
media publishing. Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through
its websites, its international network of wholly owned offices in 17
countries, and agents in more than 50 countries. The company has approximately
1,350 employees worldwide, and reported revenues of approximately $185 million
in 1998.
Getty Images strategy is to use electronic commerce to enhance its
services and extend its market, and this effort is well underway with three
successful business-to-business websites already available:
tonystone.com, photodisc.com and
allsport.com. The company plans to launch a hub website for all its
content brands as a first step towards a complete desktop working environment
for the global creative market.
The company's market leading visual content brands include: Tony Stone
Images, the world's leading contemporary stock photography brand; PhotoDisc,
the world leader in digital, royalty-free stock photography; Allsport, the
world leading sports photography brand; Hulton Getty (http://www.hulton-
getty.com), one of the largest privately owned collections of archival
photography in the world; Liaison Agency (http://www.liaisonphoto.com), a
leading North American news and reportage brand; and Energy Film Library
(http://www.digital-energy.com), one of the world's leading stock footage
brands. Further information is available from the Getty Images website at
getty-images.com.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 04/20/99
/CONTACT: Laurie McEachron of Getty Images, Inc., 206-269-1769, or
laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com; or Madeline Hardart of Hill &
Knowlton, 212-885-0417, or mhardart@hillandknowlton.com/
/Web site: hill&knowlton.com/
/Web site: getty-images.com |
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (23) | 4/23/1999 8:08:00 PM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images Named As One of Business 2.0's Top 20 'Hottest Companies On The Net'
PR Newswire, Friday, April 23, 1999 at 13:22
SEATTLE, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY) ranked
number 19 on the Business 2.0 list of the "100 Hottest Companies on the Net"
in the publication's May 1999 issue.
Business 2.0 cited the company's "long-term approach to return on
investment" as one of the factors that set it apart. Getty Images is joined
in the top 20 "best and brightest e-commerce companies" by market leaders Dell
Computer, America Online, Amazon.com, Yahoo, Charles Schwab, eBay, and E*Trade
Group.
"We are delighted to be recognized in such good company," said Jonathan D.
Klein, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Getty Images. "As the
leading global provider of imagery, we are committed to continuing to expand
our online business as a more efficient sales and distribution channel and as
a significant marketplace. As the marketplace becomes increasingly global and
technology becomes more accessible, imagery is becoming more prevalent online,
a trend that will only increase with the emerging broadband Internet."
At the end of March 1999, Getty Images had more than 90,000 registered web
customers on its tonystone.com and photodisc.com full
e-commerce web sites.
In compiling the list, Business 2.0 researched more than 600 candidate
companies and considered such factors as annual web revenue, purity of web
business and growth momentum.
About Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), with 30 million photographs and more
than 13,000 hours of film, is the leading international provider of visual
content to a diverse range of professionals in advertising and graphic design,
magazine, book and newspaper publishing, broadcasting, production, and new
media publishing. Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through
its web sites, its international network of wholly owned offices in 17
countries, and agents in more than 50 countries. The company has
approximately 1,350 employees worldwide, and reported revenues of
approximately $185 million in 1998. Getty Images strategy is to use
electronic commerce to enhance its services and extend its market, and this
effort is well underway with three successful business-to-business web sites
already available: tonystone.com, photodisc.com and
allsport.com. The company plans to launch a hub web site for all
its content brands as a first step towards a complete desktop working
environment for the global creative market. The company's market leading
visual content brands include: Tony Stone Images, the world's leading
contemporary stock photography brand; PhotoDisc, the world leader in digital,
royalty-free stock photography; Allsport, the world leading sports photography
brand; Hulton Getty (http://www.hulton-getty.com), one of the largest
privately owned collections of archival photography in the world; Liaison
Agency (http://www.liaisonphoto.com), a leading North American news and
reportage brand; and Energy Film Library (http://www.digital-energy.com), one
of the world's leading stock footage brands. Further information is available
from the Getty Images web site at getty-images.com.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 04/23/99
/CONTACT: Laurie McEachron of Getty Images, 206-269-1769, or
laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com; or Madeline Hardart of Hill &
Knowlton, 212-885-0417, or mhardart@hillandknowlton.com, for Getty Images/
/Web site: getty-images.com
|
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (24) | 4/27/1999 11:07:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' PhotoDisc Inks Deal With Amazon.Com; PhotoDisc to be Premier Photography Provider to Amazon.Com Cards
PR Newswire, Tuesday, April 27, 1999 at 09:25
SEATTLE, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- PhotoDisc, Inc., the leading
royalty-free stock photography brand of Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY),
announced today that it has signed an agreement with Amazon.com
(NASDAQ:AMZN), the Internet's leading book, video and music retailer, to be
the premier provider of contemporary royalty-free photography to Amazon's new
electronic greeting-card site -- Amazon.com Cards.
The new Cards section, accessible from navigation tabs on every page on
the site, features a wide range of images from PhotoDisc's 75,000-image
collection, along with graphics, animation and fine-art images from other
partners. Visitors to the site will be able to select, customize and send
electronic greeting cards, at no cost, to anyone with an email address.
Recipients of the cards will be able to view them on the Amazon.com site.
"We constantly look for ways to enhance the experience our eight million
shoppers have on the site," said Eric Broussard, General Manager of Amazon.com
Cards. "By working with content partners like PhotoDisc to build our new
Cards site, we can be confident that the quality and breadth of the imagery we
use is unmatched."
The agreement marks the first time that any of Getty's brands has made its
high-quality images accessible to a consumer audience. Getty Images sells
primarily to the creative professional market of advertisers, graphic
designers, publishers, and web and new media designers.
Jonathan Klein, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Getty Images,
said, "The increase in consumer use of the web offers a tremendous opportunity
for us to make our unrivaled imagery more accessible to people everywhere.
The collaboration with Amazon.com is a first step toward this broad audience."
"PhotoDisc is delighted to be the premier contemporary photography
provider for Amazon.com's new Cards site," added Sally von Bargen, PhotoDisc
president. "We look forward to working with this leading Internet company to
bring our images to millions of Amazon.com's visitors."
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is the leading international provider of visual content to a diverse
range of professionals in advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and
newspaper publishing, broadcasting, production, and new media publishing.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its web sites, its
international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries, and agents in
more than 50 countries. The company has approximately 1,350 employees
worldwide, and reported revenues of approximately $185 million in 1998.
Getty Images' strategy is to use electronic commerce to enhance its
services and extend its market, and this effort is well underway with three
successful business-to-business web sites already available:
tonystone.com, photodisc.com and
allsport.com. The company plans to launch a hub web site for all
its content brands as a first step towards a complete desktop working
environment for the global creative market.
The company's market leading visual content brands include: Tony Stone
Images, the world's leading contemporary stock photography brand; PhotoDisc,
the world leader in digital, royalty-free stock photography; Allsport, the
world leading sports photography brand; Hulton Getty
(http://www.hulton-getty.com), one of the largest privately owned collections
of archival photography in the world; Liaison Agency
(http://www.liaisonphoto.com), a leading North American news and reportage
brand; and Energy Film Library (http://www.digital-energy.com), one of the
world's leading stock footage brands. Further information is available from
the Getty Images web site at getty-images.com.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 04/27/99
/CONTACT: Mary Waters-Sayer, Investor Relations Manager, 44-171-544-2973,
or mary.waters.sayer@getty-images.com, or Laurie McEachron, 206-269-1769, or
laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com, Public Relations Director, both of
Getty Images; or Madeline Hardart of Hill & Knowlton, 212-885-0417, or
mhardart@hillandknowlton.com, for Getty Images/
/Web site: getty-images.com
/Web site: photodisc.com
heggenhougen.com
|
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (2) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (25) | 4/27/1999 9:01:00 PM | | From: Eric P | | | |
GETY had a great day today, after the Amazon news. It broke out to a new 52 week high on increased volume. I bought a few shares late in the day and expect it to show further strength tomorrow.
Go GETY!
-Eric |
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (25) | 5/5/1999 6:42:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Growing E-Commerce Sales Boost Getty Images' Strong First Quarter Results
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 00:40
Increase in E-Commerce Sales Results in Significant Overall Revenue Growth
For Leading Global Visual Content Provider
SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), a
leading global provider of visual content, today announced financial results
for the first quarter of 1999. Sales for the quarter increased by 38 percent
over the first quarter of 1998 to $52.2 million and reported EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, exchange gains/(losses), depreciation, amortization,
non-recurring integration and restructuring costs, legal settlement and
extraordinary items) increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million.
Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM sales,
amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with 23 percent of
sales for the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for the quarter
increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter of 1998 to more than
$10.4 million. E-commerce sales as a percentage of total sales increased to
approximately 20 percent from approximately 10 percent in the first quarter of
1998.
Getty Images' first quarter success was fueled by its fully e-commerce
enabled web sites, which continue to drive sales and increase margins. The
www.photodisc.com site reported a nearly 80 percent increase in e-commerce
sales over the first quarter of 1998. Sales on the site represented
40 percent of total sales for the brand. E-commerce sales on the
www.tonystone.com site have increased approximately eightfold since the fourth
quarter of 1998 and accounted for 15 percent of total North American sales for
the brand in the first quarter of 1999. Registrations on the www.allsport.com
web site are up nearly 20 percent over the fourth quarter of 1998.
In April of this year, Getty Images made its imagery available to a
consumer audience for the first time as PhotoDisc became the premier provider
of contemporary royalty-free photography to Amazon.com's new electronic
greeting-card site. In a separate announcement today, the company announced
an agreement to acquire Art.com, a premier online destination for art. The
acquisition marks Getty Images' expansion into the growing online consumer
marketplace, a move that will significantly increase the company's potential
customer base.
The company's e-commerce achievements were recently recognized as it
ranked number 19 on the May issue of Business 2.0's "100 Hottest Companies on
the Net," joined in the top 20 by market leaders including Dell Computer,
America Online, Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Charles Schwab and eBay.
"With the expansion of our e-commerce business, we continue to strive to
create a more user-friendly experience for our customers and a more efficient
and cost-effective platform for getting our images to our customers," said
Mark Getty, co-founder and executive chairman. "As the next step in this
direction, we plan to launch a hub web site that will allow our customers to
search across all our creative collections in the second half of the year.
Furthermore, we intend to continue to build on our success in this area by
expanding and diversifying not only our e-commerce offerings, but also our
customer base."
"We are very pleased with the growth we have achieved in the first quarter
of this year, particularly the strong growth of our e-commerce sales," said
Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer. "With our brands, we
continue to create solutions that increase our market share and broaden our
potential customer base. With our corporate headquarters moving to Seattle
later this year, we will be better able to focus on developing our technology
resources and we will continue to make the investments in technology and in
marketing necessary to support our growing e-commerce operations."
Highlights of the first quarter 1999
-- Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM
sales, amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with
23 percent of sales in the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for
the quarter increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter
of 1998 to more than $10.4 million. Registered web customers on all
Getty Images full e-commerce web sites grew to more than 93,000.
E-commerce sales for all Getty brands doubled to approximately 20
percent of sales in the first quarter of 1999 from approximately 10
percent in the first quarter of 1998.
-- Getty Images' leading contemporary stock photography brand, Tony Stone
Images, increased sales for the first quarter of 1999 by more than 10
percent over the first quarter of 1998. Approximately 25 percent of
the sales on the www.tonystone.com web site were to new customers.
E-commerce sales for the brand continue to exceed expectations in both
North America and Europe. E-commerce sales in North America accounted
for 15 percent of the total North American sales for the quarter, while
UK e-commerce sales accounted for 6 percent of the brand's total UK
sales for the month of March 1999.
-- The average license price on the www.tonystone.com web site is closely
in line with the brand's average price in the analog model, which
demonstrates that e-commerce is also having no adverse impact on
pricing for our products.
-- Getty Images' leading digital, royalty-free imagery brand, PhotoDisc,
reported sales growth of more than 30 percent over the first quarter of
1998. Following the launch of a redesigned e-commerce web site
featuring enhanced functionality, PhotoDisc achieved an increase in
e-commerce sales of nearly 80 percent over the first quarter of 1998.
E-commerce sales accounted for 40 percent of total PhotoDisc sales,
with more than half of total North American sales and nearly 20 percent
of European sales on the web.
-- Allsport, the company's leading sports photography brand, ended the
quarter with more than 1,000 subscribers for its www.allsport.com web
site, and in addition to renewing its existing contracts, signed a
number of new contracts. Allsport has contracts with a number of
leading online businesses, including CBS Sportsline, America Online and
Compuserve.
-- In March, Getty Images announced the relocation of its corporate
headquarters to Seattle from London, based on the company's increasing
emphasis on e-commerce. The move will bring the company closer to the
majority of its customers and shareholders in the U.S.
-- PhotoDisc executed a reseller agreement with amana, the parent company
of Photonica, which gives access and product endorsement to amana's
more than 60,000 licensed stock customers in Japan.
-- Energy Film Library's sales increased more than 20 percent over the
fourth quarter of 1998, largely as a result of increased marketing and
outreach programs by the Los Angeles office.
-- Liaison Agency's press division delivered solid growth in the first
quarter, assisted by extensive news coverage of the Clinton impeachment
trial and the war in Kosovo.
-- Hulton Getty sales grew more than 20 percent in the UK in the first
quarter, partly due to an excellent performance at the Hulton Getty
Gallery.
Financial results for the first quarter 1999
-- Getty Images' reported sales increased by 38 percent to $52.2 million
in the first quarter of 1999, compared with $37.9 million in the first
quarter of 1998.
-- Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 73.5 percent of sales
from 69.4 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 72.5 percent in the
fourth quarter of 1998. The increase was due to the continuing shift
to web sales and an increase of sales of wholly-owned content. The
increases also demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies the
company has put into place to increase gross margins.
-- Selling, general and administrative expenses were $28.7 million,
representing 55.1 percent of sales compared with 52.1 percent in the
first quarter of 1998. The increase in SG&A was largely due to
continued and accelerated investment in marketing associated with the
launch of new web sites and increased investment in management, new
sales offices and new business systems.
-- EBITDA for the first quarter increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million,
compared to $6.6 million in the first quarter of 1998. On a pro forma
basis, EBITDA increased by $6.5 million or 210 percent over the first
quarter of 1998. EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased from 17.3
percent in the first quarter of 1998 to 18.4 percent. |
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| To: REH who wrote (22) | 5/5/1999 6:44:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Photography House Getty Images To Buy Art.com For About $200 Million
Dow Jones Online News, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 01:26
(Published on Tuesday, May 04, 1999 at 22:23)
By William M. Bulkeley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Photography house Getty Images Inc. has agreed to buy Art.com for up
to $200 million, in a move aimed at creating a dominant online marketer
of artistic and photographic reproductions.
Getty, founded by the grandson of billionaire oil man J. Paul Getty,
has become one of the world's largest sellers of photographs through
purchases of photo repositories. It owns about 30 million images and
dispatches photographers around the world to take shots of current
events and images from professional baseball games to Kosovar refugees.
Closely held Art.com, based in Lake Forest, Ill., has been selling
prints of paintings and posters and framing them for online purchasers
for just a year. It typically doesn't own the rights to the works it
displays online, but acts as a sales intermediary.
Under the terms of an agreement expected to be announced today, Getty
Images will initially pay 4.5 million of its shares to Art.com, plus up
to $84 million in additional cash and stock, depending on operating
results and stock price over the next four months.
Getty founder Mark Getty said the company wants to build on the
"knowledge base" of Art.com to reach consumers and expand beyond its
traditional business buyers. Getty can print some of its photos to order
from its digital files, avoiding the expense of physical inventory. "We
have four million pictures of sports events and add 5,000 a week," Mr.
Getty says. "If I was 14, I'd have them all over my walls."
Mr. Getty, 37 years old, started Getty Images in 1995 and has since
bought a stock photo house, a historical archive, a photojournalism
company and PhotoDisc Inc., a provider of digitized royalty free photos.
Last year, Getty Images reported a net loss of $36.4 million on an 85%
sales increase to $185.1 million. Mr. Getty's family holds a 28% stake
in the company, which has been based in London but is moving to Seattle.
Started by William Lederer, a 37-year-old onetime money manager,
Art.com carries 100,000 prints that users can order online. It has sold
30,000 customers about $2 million worth of goods, and says it is now
growing more than 50% a month.
The deal with Getty provides a quick return for the three
venture-capital firms that invested $10 million for a 50% stake in
Art.com last November. They are Benchmark Capital, Palo Alto, Calif.;
Softbank Technology Ventures, San Jose; and Sandler Capital Management,
New York. Robert Kagle, a partner with Benchmark, said they contemplated
an initial public offering, but "we were all captured by the strategic
fit between Getty and the ability to print those images on demand and
offer a complete, framed work of art."
Getting the venture money was a key point in Art.com's development
because it allowed it to acquire its current Internet address for
$450,000 from its previous owner, Advanced Rotorcraft Technology, a
helicopter consulting firm. "Our order rate doubled," Mr. Lederer says.
A consumer visiting the Art.com site has the option of searching for
artworks by artist, key word or index. Offerings span the gamut from
Rembrandt to Rothko to H.A. Rey, the creator of "Curious George." Some
80% of sales are unframed art, but Mr. Lederer is looking to build
framed sales.
When buyers pick a print, they can choose a mat, using a palette of
50 choices, then a frame and glass or plexiglass. An 11-by-15-inch print
of Curious George goes for $10; adding a mat and metal frame brings the
total to $53.48. A larger, more elaborate, framed print of say, an
expressionist work can fetch $400 or more. Pamela Miller, a Southern
California writer, says she has started buying and sending unframed
Art.com prints to friends and relatives rather than greeting cards.
Mr. Lederer says the art-framing business is ripe for consolidation,
in part because "I'm a capitalist in a sea of communists. Very few
participants in the art industry are interested solely in making the
greatest amount of money, believe it or not."
Mark Getty's vision isn't unique. Microsoft Corp. Chairman William
Gates owns Corbis Corp., a Seattle company that has built a 25 million
photo collection that includes photos by Ansel Adams and of John F.
Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's casket. Corbis recently started
selling downloadable images to consumers. A small Cambridge, Mass.,
company, Barewalls.com competes with Art.com in the poster market,
although it doesn't provide framing.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
|
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (28) | 5/5/1999 7:04:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Growing E-Commerce Sales Boost Getty Images' Strong First Quarter Results
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 00:40
Increase in E-Commerce Sales Results in Significant Overall Revenue Growth
For Leading Global Visual Content Provider
SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), a
leading global provider of visual content, today announced financial results
for the first quarter of 1999. Sales for the quarter increased by 38 percent
over the first quarter of 1998 to $52.2 million and reported EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, exchange gains/(losses), depreciation, amortization,
non-recurring integration and restructuring costs, legal settlement and
extraordinary items) increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million.
Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM sales,
amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with 23 percent of
sales for the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for the quarter
increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter of 1998 to more than
$10.4 million. E-commerce sales as a percentage of total sales increased to
approximately 20 percent from approximately 10 percent in the first quarter of
1998.
Getty Images' first quarter success was fueled by its fully e-commerce
enabled web sites, which continue to drive sales and increase margins. The
www.photodisc.com site reported a nearly 80 percent increase in e-commerce
sales over the first quarter of 1998. Sales on the site represented
40 percent of total sales for the brand. E-commerce sales on the
www.tonystone.com site have increased approximately eightfold since the fourth
quarter of 1998 and accounted for 15 percent of total North American sales for
the brand in the first quarter of 1999. Registrations on the www.allsport.com
web site are up nearly 20 percent over the fourth quarter of 1998.
In April of this year, Getty Images made its imagery available to a
consumer audience for the first time as PhotoDisc became the premier provider
of contemporary royalty-free photography to Amazon.com's new electronic
greeting-card site. In a separate announcement today, the company announced
an agreement to acquire Art.com, a premier online destination for art. The
acquisition marks Getty Images' expansion into the growing online consumer
marketplace, a move that will significantly increase the company's potential
customer base.
The company's e-commerce achievements were recently recognized as it
ranked number 19 on the May issue of Business 2.0's "100 Hottest Companies on
the Net," joined in the top 20 by market leaders including Dell Computer,
America Online, Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Charles Schwab and eBay.
"With the expansion of our e-commerce business, we continue to strive to
create a more user-friendly experience for our customers and a more efficient
and cost-effective platform for getting our images to our customers," said
Mark Getty, co-founder and executive chairman. "As the next step in this
direction, we plan to launch a hub web site that will allow our customers to
search across all our creative collections in the second half of the year.
Furthermore, we intend to continue to build on our success in this area by
expanding and diversifying not only our e-commerce offerings, but also our
customer base."
"We are very pleased with the growth we have achieved in the first quarter
of this year, particularly the strong growth of our e-commerce sales," said
Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer. "With our brands, we
continue to create solutions that increase our market share and broaden our
potential customer base. With our corporate headquarters moving to Seattle
later this year, we will be better able to focus on developing our technology
resources and we will continue to make the investments in technology and in
marketing necessary to support our growing e-commerce operations."
Highlights of the first quarter 1999
-- Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM
sales, amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with
23 percent of sales in the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for
the quarter increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter
of 1998 to more than $10.4 million. Registered web customers on all
Getty Images full e-commerce web sites grew to more than 93,000.
E-commerce sales for all Getty brands doubled to approximately 20
percent of sales in the first quarter of 1999 from approximately 10
percent in the first quarter of 1998.
-- Getty Images' leading contemporary stock photography brand, Tony Stone
Images, increased sales for the first quarter of 1999 by more than 10
percent over the first quarter of 1998. Approximately 25 percent of
the sales on the www.tonystone.com web site were to new customers.
E-commerce sales for the brand continue to exceed expectations in both
North America and Europe. E-commerce sales in North America accounted
for 15 percent of the total North American sales for the quarter, while
UK e-commerce sales accounted for 6 percent of the brand's total UK
sales for the month of March 1999.
-- The average license price on the www.tonystone.com web site is closely
in line with the brand's average price in the analog model, which
demonstrates that e-commerce is also having no adverse impact on
pricing for our products.
-- Getty Images' leading digital, royalty-free imagery brand, PhotoDisc,
reported sales growth of more than 30 percent over the first quarter of
1998. Following the launch of a redesigned e-commerce web site
featuring enhanced functionality, PhotoDisc achieved an increase in
e-commerce sales of nearly 80 percent over the first quarter of 1998.
E-commerce sales accounted for 40 percent of total PhotoDisc sales,
with more than half of total North American sales and nearly 20 percent
of European sales on the web.
-- Allsport, the company's leading sports photography brand, ended the
quarter with more than 1,000 subscribers for its www.allsport.com web
site, and in addition to renewing its existing contracts, signed a
number of new contracts. Allsport has contracts with a number of
leading online businesses, including CBS Sportsline, America Online and
Compuserve.
-- In March, Getty Images announced the relocation of its corporate
headquarters to Seattle from London, based on the company's increasing
emphasis on e-commerce. The move will bring the company closer to the
majority of its customers and shareholders in the U.S.
-- PhotoDisc executed a reseller agreement with amana, the parent company
of Photonica, which gives access and product endorsement to amana's
more than 60,000 licensed stock customers in Japan.
-- Energy Film Library's sales increased more than 20 percent over the
fourth quarter of 1998, largely as a result of increased marketing and
outreach programs by the Los Angeles office.
-- Liaison Agency's press division delivered solid growth in the first
quarter, assisted by extensive news coverage of the Clinton impeachment
trial and the war in Kosovo.
-- Hulton Getty sales grew more than 20 percent in the UK in the first
quarter, partly due to an excellent performance at the Hulton Getty
Gallery.
Financial results for the first quarter 1999
-- Getty Images' reported sales increased by 38 percent to $52.2 million
in the first quarter of 1999, compared with $37.9 million in the first
quarter of 1998.
-- Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 73.5 percent of sales
from 69.4 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 72.5 percent in the
fourth quarter of 1998. The increase was due to the continuing shift
to web sales and an increase of sales of wholly-owned content. The
increases also demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies the
company has put into place to increase gross margins.
-- Selling, general and administrative expenses were $28.7 million,
representing 55.1 percent of sales compared with 52.1 percent in the
first quarter of 1998. The increase in SG&A was largely due to
continued and accelerated investment in marketing associated with the
launch of new web sites and increased investment in management, new
sales offices and new business systems.
-- EBITDA for the first quarter increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million,
compared to $6.6 million in the first quarter of 1998. On a pro forma
basis, EBITDA increased by $6.5 million or 210 percent over the first
quarter of 1998. EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased from 17.3
percent in the first quarter of 1998 to 18.4 percent.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is a leading international provider of visual content to a diverse
range of professionals in advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and
newspaper publishing, broadcasting, production and new media publishing.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its web sites, its
international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries and agents in
more than 50 counties. The company has approximately 1,350 employees
worldwide and reported revenues of approximately $185 million in 1998.
Getty Images' strategy is to use electronic commerce to enhance its
services and extend its market and this effort is well underway with three
successful business-to-business web sites already available:
tonystone.com, photodisc.com, allsport.com.
The company plans to launch a hub web site for all its content brands as a
first step towards a complete desktop working environment for the global
creative market.
Art.com, Getty Images' newly acquired consumer content brand, is the
number one online destination for art. The web site features the world's
largest collection of framed and unframed art, discounted at 20 to 50 percent
below traditional costs. Art.com's galleries feature works by famous artists,
such as Monet, van Gogh and Matisse, as well as original artists, including
Ronnie Wood. Prints can be purchased unframed or framed, using Art.com's
proprietary software. Art.com also offers Art Print Index
(http://www.artprintindex.com), the art industry standard for sourcing and
buying art.
The company's market leading business-to-business visual content brands
include: Tony Stone Images, the world's leading contemporary stock photography
brand; PhotoDisc, the world leader in digital, royalty-free stock photography;
Allsport, the world leading sports photography brand; Hulton Getty
(http://www.hulton-getty.com), one of the largest privately owned collections
of archival photography in the world; Liaison Agency
(http://www.liaisonphoto.com), a leading North American news and reportage
brand; and Energy Film Library (http:/www.digital-energy.com), one of the
world's leading stock footage brands. Further information is available from
Getty Images' web site at (http://www.getty-images.com).
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT HIGHLIGHTS
(Unaudited, in thousands)
First quarter
Getty Images Inc. Getty Images Inc.
Three Months Ended Three Months Ended
March 1998 March 1999
$'000 $'000
Sales $37,931 $52,150
Cost of sales 11,607 13,841
Gross profit 26,324 38,309
Selling, general and
administrative expenses 19,748 28,724
Amortization 6,897 10,224
Depreciation 2,897 4,606
Operating loss (3,218) (5,245)
Net interest expensed (551) (811)
Exchange losses (356) (391)
Loss before tax (4,125) (6,447)
Income taxes (1,080) (1,435)
Net loss (5,205) (7,882)
EBITDA (a) $6,576 $9,585
Notes: (a) EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, taxes,
exchange losses, depreciation and amortization.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
(In thousands)
Audited Unaudited
Getty Images Inc. Getty Images Inc.
At December 31, At March 31,
1998 1999
$'000 $'000
Cash and cash equivalents $16,150 $8,249
Other current assets 53,059 62,886
Total current assets 69,209 71,135
Fixed assets, net 62,757 63,669
Intangible assets 325,861 315,637
Deferred assets 5,036 4,969
TOTAL ASSETS $462,863 $455,410
Short term borrowings $202 $108
Other current liabilities 46,380 47,675
Total current liabilities 46,582 47,783
Long term debt 72,354 72,532
Shareholders' equity 343,927 335,095
TOTAL LIABILITIES & SHAREHOLDERS
EQUITY $462,863 $455,410
|
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| To: Billy Barooo who wrote () | 5/19/1999 10:59:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' Art.com Increases Commitment to Online Partners Including AOL, Netscape, Excite, DoubleClick and Yahoo!
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 19, 1999 at 09:29
Web's Leading Source of Framed and Unframed Art Increases Targeted Advertising
on Leading Portal Sites
SEATTLE, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Art.com, the leading online sites for art
and art-related products, announced today that it has increased its
advertising commitment on websites including AOL and its subsidiary Netscape
(NYSE:AOL), Excite (NASDAQ:XCIT), DoubleClick (NASDAQ:DCLK) and Yahoo!
(NASDAQ:YHOO). Art.com, the consumer brand of Getty Images, Inc.
(NASDAQ:GETY), plans to use increased visibility on these leading portal
sites to extend its reach into existing and new markets for the more than
100,000 images available on its e-commerce site www.art.com. Art.com's 1999
online advertising expenditures are anticipated to increase at least seven-
fold over 1998.
With one of the web's largest collections of framed and unframed art,
Art.com makes art more accessible, affordable, and easier to select and
purchase. Through increased use of targeted advertising and sponsorships on
key web portal sites, Art.com's aim is to increase its exposure to audiences
interested in purchasing decorative art for homes, offices, college
dormitories or as gifts, thus continuing to strengthen its presence in the
estimated $9 billion consumer market for art and art related products. In the
very near future, selected content from Getty Images' other branded
collections will be added to the Art.com site, increasing the number and
variety of images available on the site.
"Our success with online advertising, on AOL, Yahoo! and other sites, is
illustrated by the more than 400 percent increase in user sessions on the site
during the first four months of 1999. This increase demonstrates the value of
advertising on the most popular and trusted brand-name portals on the web,
said Bill Lederer, Chief Executive Officer of Art.com. "We remain fully
committed to building on our lead in the consumer art marketplace and our
increased advertising expenditures reflect this commitment."
Art.com also intends to strengthen its presence on web sites that appeal
specifically to women, its largest customer segment. Sites such as iVillage
(NASDAQ:IVIL), HomeArts and the Women.com network will also see increased
sponsorship this year. |
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: REH who wrote (31) | 6/3/1999 5:46:00 PM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' Art.com Partners with Key Women's Web Sites
PR Newswire, Thursday, June 03, 1999 at 16:39
Alliances with iVillage and Women.com Provides Web Shoppers
Direct Access to Great Art
SEATTLE, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images' Art.com(SM) subsidiary, one
of the world's most inviting places to discover and buy art, today announced
it has formed strategic partnerships with two of the top women's sites on the
Internet: iVillage and Women.com. These partnerships will provide iVillage
and Women.com audiences with direct access to Art.com through its placement in
shopping areas on the respective web sites, as well as through showcased
Art.com prints, keyword listings in home and gift categories, and banner ads
throughout the network of sites. iVillage (http://www.ivillage.com) is one of
the most demographically targeted communities on the World Wide Web.
Women.com, which includes Women.com (http://www.women.com), HomeArts
(http://www.homearts.com) and Astronet (http://www.astronet.com), provides the
largest breadth of resources of any online women's offering. Art.com is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), the leading,
global provider of visual content.
"Women make 90 percent of all home decorating decisions, and 35 percent of
women buy home furnishings online," said Bill Lederer, Chief Executive Officer
of Art.com. "Art.com sees iVillage and Women.com as ideal partners for these
very reasons. By combining forces, we can give a large, female target audience
direct, convenient access to an art e-commerce source that will meet their
decorating and gift needs wonderfully."
Crafting Artistic Partnerships
Through the two alliances, key female audiences will be able to connect
easily and directly to the Art.com e-commerce web site from various spots on
the iVillage and Women.com sites. At Art.com, customers can discover and
purchase more than 100,000 works of art, framed or unframed, at prices
discounted 20 to 50 percent off traditional costs.
The placement of Art.com on these targeted sites provides a broad online
shopping audience with a venue that sparks decorating and gift ideas while
offering a tremendous selection that is easy to access. The IVILLAGE/WOMEN.COM
shopping environment has been validated by a recent BizRate study that
indicates gift shopping sections attract nearly 13 percent of online buyers.
iVillage
Art.com will be a featured sponsor of the iVillage Home & Garden, Art &
Collectibles, Gifts and Wedding shopping categories on the iVillage site.
iVillage audiences also will be able to connect directly to the Art.com web
site through banners posted throughout the iVillage web site and learn more
about Art.com in the iVillage newsletter.
iVillage is a leading online women's community, where an average of five
million visitors per month come to learn, shop and communicate. Audiences can
join the nearly 1.6 million others who have registered on the web site to
receive coupons, articles, messages, to participate in chat sessions, and to
receive personalized advice about topics ranging from menu planning to
pregnancy. Now, this partnership with Art.com means that this audience also
has direct access to one of the most engaging and comprehensive sources for
great art, home decorating ideas and gifts.
Women.com
Art.com will showcase art prints in the home and gift categories of the
new shopping area on the Women.com web site and will participate in three
upcoming Women.com network sweepstakes. Women.com audiences also will be able
to connect directly to the Art.com web site through Art.com banners posted
throughout the network and learn more about Art.com in the Women.com
newsletter.
The Women.com network is an online content, community and e-commerce web
site where more than four million people visit monthly to discover everything
home decor and diet to weddings. Audiences can even register on the web site
to receive exclusive offers, personalized services and interactive tools to
make their experience unique and fulfilling. This extended partnership with
Art.com means that audiences can also discover and decorate their homes with
many of the world's great art works.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is a leading international provider of visual content to both the
professional and the consumer markets. The company's business-to-business
image brands provide imagery to a diverse range of creative professionals in
advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and newspaper publishing,
broadcasting, production, and web and new media publishing. The company's
consumer brand, Art.com, offers framed and unframed art and art related items
to the $9 billion consumer art marketplace.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its web sites,
its international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries, and agents
in more than 50 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, the company has
approximately 1,450 employees worldwide, and had revenues of $52.2 million in
the first quarter of 1999. The company's 1998 revenues were approximately $185
million.
Getty Images' market leading visual content brands are:
Business-to-business
Tony Stone Images tonystone.com
Energy Film Library digital-energy.com
PhotoDisc photodisc.com
Hulton Getty hultongetty.com
Allsport htpp://www.allsport.com
Liaison Agency liaisonphoto.com
Consumer
Art.com art.com
For more information on Getty Images and its product brands please visit
the company's web site at getty-images.com.
About Women.com Networks
Women.com is the number one women's network on the Web serving the needs
of women within a range of life stages and diverse interests. Since the 1995
launch of flagship web site Women's Wire, the company has grown into a network
of women's oriented communities, now featuring Women.com, HomeArts.com, and
Astronet. To the over 4 million women visiting each month, the Women.com
Networks deliver interactive content and services, supportive communities, and
online shopping. Women.com offers advertisers and direct marketers access to
the most important market on the Web, with advertising products, programming,
and placement ideally suited to their advertising objectives. The company
enjoys strategic alliances with major communication companies such as The
Hearst Corporation, Rodale Press, MediaOne, Hallmark and Bloomberg, LP, as
well as with the leading Web portals. Women.com Networks can be found at
women.com, homearts.com, and astronet.com and
through AOL Keywords "Women.com," "HomeArts," and "Astronet."
About iVillage
iVillage is the leading online women's network and one of the most
demographically targeted online communities on the World Wide Web. iVillage's
network, "iVillage.com," is an easy-to-use, comprehensive online network of
sites tailored to fit the interests and needs of women aged 25 through 49, and
provides advertisers and merchants with targeted access to women using the
Web. The network consists of 14 channels covering the leading topics of
interest to women online, such as family, health, work, money, food,
relationships, shopping, travel, pets and astrology.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 06/03/99
/CONTACT: Emily Swiatek of Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations,
404-897-2300, eswiatek@alexanderogilvy.com, for Art.com; Laurie McEachron,
206-269-1769, laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com or Mary Waters Sayer,
011-44-171-544-2973, mary.waters.sayer@getty-images.com, both of Getty Images,
Inc.; Mark Fox of Hill & Knowlton 212-885-0642, mfox@hillandknowlton.com, for
Getty Images, Inc./
/Web site: getty-images.com
|
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| |
