GETTY IMAGES ABANDONS $3.7BN SHUTTERSTOCK MERGER OVER UK COMPETITION RULING

Getty Images has terminated its planned $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock following a ruling by Britain's Competition and Markets Authority. The two companies first agreed to combine in January 2025, seeking to build scale amid disruption from generative artificial intelligence tools entering the stock imagery market. Getty's board unanimously decided not to proceed with a supervised sale of Shutterstock's editorial business, a condition the CMA imposed in May when it cleared the merger. The merger agreement will formally lapse after 6 July.

The CMA's independent inquiry group concluded that keeping both companies' editorial operations together would reduce choice for UK media outlets and could increase prices over time. Editorial content—photographs and video of newsworthy events, public figures and landmarks—was identified as the market segment of primary concern. British customers typically require both global and domestic imagery for sport, breaking news and celebrity coverage. Getty and Shutterstock had offered to sell Shutterstock's global editorial arm during the CMA's initial review phase, describing it as peripheral to Shutterstock's core operations, but this fell short of the regulator's requirement for a formally supervised divestment.

Following the announcement, Shutterstock's share price fell approximately 30 per cent in after-hours trading, according to market data. The collapse of the merger ends a significant consolidation effort within the digital image licensing sector at a time when artificial intelligence poses escalating competitive pressure to traditional stock imagery providers. Shutterstock declined to comment on the termination.