Rex Features, the photographic agency that has sold pictures to British national newspapers for 50 years, has been snapped up, for £22m, by the New York stock photo supplier, Shutterstock.
The Financial Times reports that Shutterstock, founded in 2003 and boasting a market capitalisation of almost $2.2bn (£1.4bn), has previously been focused on providing stock photos to creative companies and corporate marketing departments.
So the acquisition takes Shutterstock into new territory. Its founder and chief executive, Jon Oringer, is quoted as saying that it marks his company’s “substantive entry into editorial imagery”.
It also places Shutterstock in closer alignment with the other major player in the field, Getty Images, which was acquired by the private equity group Carlyle in 2012 for $3.3bn.
Getty tried to buy Rex in 2010, but gave up after the deal was referred to the Competition Commission. The Office of Fair Trading was concerned that the combined group would wield too much power over the markets for both archive and live editorial images in the UK.
Rex, founded in 1954 by Frank and Elizabeth Selby, is famous for its retailing of paparazzi photos and its coverage of celebrity and royal events.
It owns a library of more than 13m digital images. In 2013, Rex returned a profit of almost £1.2m on turnover of £10.6m.
Sources: FT/Personal knowledge
