Getty plans to cancel its $3.7 billion merger deal with Shutterstock after the UK regulator imposed sanctions that would prevent its share of Shutterstock’s business from being included in the deal. The move comes despite the US Justice Department giving “unconditional antitrust approval” to the deal in February.
In an SEC filing published Tuesday in the US, Getty said it is “not required to accept” the approval conditions outlined by the UK Competition and Markets Authority in May that require Shutterstock to sell its global editorial business, including the Backgrid and Splash paparazzi agencies.
Those conditions have proven unaffordable enough for Getty to walk away from the deal, which was intended to combine the companies’ stock photo libraries. Both companies face competition from AI image generators that provide faster and cheaper media content on demand. The company’s board of directors voted “unanimously” to terminate the merger agreement on July 6, assuming that “no material change in the above circumstances” will occur before July 7. This essentially leaves the Getty/Shutterstock merger dead in the water.
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