Getty Images goes private in $2.4 billion deal

Hellman & Friedman will acquire Getty Images and take the stock-photo powerhouse private.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer

Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.

Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials

Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.

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Stephen Shankland

Feb. 25, 2008 6:33 p.m. PT

Hellman & Friedman is acquiring Getty Images for about $2.4 billion in a deal that would make the powerful but financially troubled seller of stock photography into a privately owned company, the companies said Monday.

Getty shareholders will receive $34 per share, and Hellman & Friedman will assume the company's debt under the deal, the companies said. That price is a 29 percent premium over Friday's closing price of $24.45; on Monday, the stock closed at $31.67.

Getty's board has approved the acquisition and resolved to recommend the transaction to shareholders; the deal is expected to close in the second quarter. The Seattle-based company confirmed in January it was "exploring strategic alternatives."

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