Getty Images has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it moves ahead with a restructuring plan that will take the visual-content company private following the collapse of its planned merger with rival Shutterstock.
Gett Images filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, formalizing a financial restructuring announced the previous week. The move comes as Getty Images faces substantial debt and increasing competition from AI-generated imagery.
Under the proposed restructuring, affiliates of the Getty family and Koch Equity Development will take full ownership of the company. The investors have committed to providing up to $533 million in new equity to support the transaction.
Getty Images also said it had begun soliciting formal approval for its reorganization plan, marking another step toward completing the restructuring.
In its filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware, Getty Images reported estimated assets and liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion each. The broad figures indicate the scale of the company’s financial position but do not establish its exact debt burden.
Koch Equity Development is also providing financing of up to $143 million to support the company during the restructuring process.
Getty Images expects to complete the restructuring by the end of 2026.
The bankruptcy filing follows the breakdown of Getty Images’ proposed merger with Shutterstock, a deal that had offered a potential path forward for the two visual-content providers.
The collapse of the merger left Getty Images pursuing an alternative restructuring strategy amid financial pressures and competition from artificial intelligence-generated content.
Getty Images supplies photographs and videos to media organizations and other customers, competing in the editorial visual-content market with news agencies including Reuters and the Associated Press.
Despite entering bankruptcy proceedings, the company has said its business will continue operating normally throughout the process.
Getty Images said it does not expect the restructuring to affect its content contributors, business partners, customers, employees or vendors.
This proposed change in ownership would mark a substantial change in ownership for Getty Images. Instead of maintaining itself as a public company, it will become a wholly-owned entity by Getty family affiliates and Koch Equity Development following the process of reorganization.
The immediate priority is securing approval for the reorganization plan and completing the financial restructuring within the company’s stated year-end timetable.
If completed as proposed, the process will leave Getty Images privately owned, with new equity backing and a restructured financial position as it continues operating in an increasingly competitive visual-content industry.
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