BEIJING: Chinese image licensing company Visual China Group said it plans to invest up to US$100 million in Getty Images as the Shenzhen-listed firm expands its footprint in the global picture library.
The deal comes a month after Corbis Entertainment, the image licensing firm owned by Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates, sold its picture library business to Visual China for an undisclosed sum. That gave Visual China exclusive distribution rights to the Corbis content it bought for all regions, except China.
With a market value of 16.4 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion), Visual China has partnered with Getty Images for more than a decade to market and distribute Getty’s content exclusively in China.
Getty Images, which is backed by US private equity group Carlyle, has been struggling to compete against startups in the lower end of the market.
