Report shows Getty Images low on cash, stock photo profit down 17%

 

 

Getty Images appears to be going through some financial struggles. According to a report from Bloomberg Business, published yesterday, Getty Images burned through roughly a third of its cash in the last three months of 2014 alone.

A source, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, told Bloomberg the declining numbers just days after an invite-only conference for executives and investors.

According to the source, Getty Images is down to $27 million in liquid assets, a whopping $14 million less than what it had just three months prior.

The cause of this spending is multi-faceted and not solely the result of the company’s stock photography services, but it’s no secret it isn’t doing well. Year over year, profits from Getty’s stock photography services are down 17%, with Bloomberg citing competition from Shutterstock and Adobe’s Fotolia services as a main cause.

Getty hasn’t taken this path without a fight though. In the past year, they’ve announced a new subscription-based platform via their iStock subsidiary, opened up millions of photos from their archive for non-commercial embedding in websites and have even created a dedicated OSX and iOS app for browsing through their vast archives. But despite their best efforts, it appears not much is working out for them.

Who knows what this means for Getty Images in the long-run. But at the rate they’re currently going, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them out of cash within the third or fourth financial quarter of 2015. To read the full report, including who Getty is indebted to, head on over to Bloomberg Business.