Under the terms of the agreement, the combined company will retain the Getty Images name and continue trading under the NYSE ticker symbol "GETY." Craig Peters, current CEO of Getty Images, will lead the merged entity, while Shutterstock's CEO Paul Hennessy will join the eleven-member Board of Directors.

Shutterstock are joining forces in a merger valued at around $3.7 billion, the companies announced on Tuesday. The merger will allow the companies to expand their stock photo libraries as they face increasing competition from AI-powered image creation tools.

Getty Images is the bigger company of the two, and its shareholders will own approximately 54.7% of the new entity, while Shutterstock shareholders will own 45.3%. Getty Images also owns the iStock and Unsplash brands. The company will simply be called Getty Images.

The giant commercial photo and video providers are grappling with the emergence of artificial intelligence tools that have flooded the internet with AI-created images.

Getty Images and Shutterstock will merge into one company valued at $3.7 billion in a deal that aims to take on competition from AI, the companies announced on Tuesday. The new premier visual content company will be called Getty Images Holdings, Inc. and at close, Getty Images’s CEO, Craig Peters, will serve as CEO of the combined company.

This news was welcomed by investors of both companies, with GETY stock rising 25% and SSTK stock rising 14% on Tuesday, January 7.

The Wallace and Gromit films have always featured inventions and technology and the new instalment, Vengeance Most Fowl is no different.

Getty Images’ $3.7 billion merger, including debt, with rival stock image seller Shutterstock is a picture-perfect template for more deals.

Getty says that the merger will allow for a larger investment in “innovative content creation,” including generative AI, search, and 3D imaging. Both Getty and Shutterstock currently have built-in generative AI tools, labeled as safe for commercial use.

The deal, presented as a merger of equals, will create a company worth $3.7Bn with annual revenue of around $2Bn.

Getty Images and Shutterstock have announced that they are to merge, forming a new $US3.7 billion ($AU 5.94 billion) company to be named Getty Images Holdings.