Getty Images Acquires PicScout

Acquisition will Bring Leading Image Identification Technology to More Customers around the World

SEATTLE - May 3, 2011 - Getty Images, a leading creator and distributor of visual content and other media, today announced that it has acquired PicScout, a leader in identifying image use, metadata and licensing information on the web.

This acquisition will build and grow upon Getty Images’ existing range of products and services, enabling Getty Images to amplify its digital content licensing expertise and leverage PicScout’s technology in developing new image identification tools for customers. Getty Images will invest in PicScout’s technology and continue to work across the entire image industry, to improve and expand protection of Intellectual Property, thus ensuring a stronger overall content licensing industry.

"As the access to digital imagery becomes even easier, the ability to safeguard and manage creators’ content has become more critical than ever,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. “This acquisition will enable us to bring a vital service to a greater number of imagery agencies and companies around the world and make it possible for them to successfully manage the licensing of the content they represent."

Offir Gutelzon, co-founder and CEO of PicScout added, “With the vast expansion of digital devices and platforms, technology solutions are required to ensure every image gets its credit, which enables a connection to licensors wherever the images are used online. The acquisition will make it possible for PicScout to accelerate its position as a market innovator and as one of the world’s largest indexes of owner-identified images. It will allow PicScout to continue its rapid support of content owners and content users, who seek an integrated solution for image identification and use.”

The PicScout brand will remain, with Getty Images’ global distribution channels and platforms increasing international customers’ access to PicScout’s products and services.

The acquisition was driven by the opportunity to grow and expand PicScout’s business to the benefit of our contributors, image partners, customers and industry as a whole.

About Getty Images
Getty Images is one of the world’s leading creators and distributors of still imagery, footage and multimedia products, as well as a recognized provider of other forms of premium digital content, including music.  Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover purchase and manage images and other digital content.  Its award-winning photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world’s most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and Web sites.  Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to live.

PicScout Enhances ImageExchange Application to Expedite Creative Professionals’ Workflow Through Instant Image ID and One-Click Connection For Licensing

New Interface Reflects Survey Feedback Showing More Than 70 Percent of Creative Professionals Use Google and Yahoo to Search for Images

LOS GATOS, Calif.—Nov. 16, 2010 - PicScout, an information company that commands the world's largest index of fingerprinted and owner-identified images, released today a unique interface via its ImageExchange application. ImageExchange helps anyone search for licensable images faster, easier, and with more options. On both image search engines and web pages, the new ImageExchange interface prominently displays a right-hand panel that instantly identifies and filters licensable images and each image’s license type – allowing creative professionals to access the exact image they want, and if they desire, connect to the image’s licensing information.

A recent HOW Design survey of more than 800 creative professionals showed that 71 percent use Google or Yahoo Images for image inspiration and that 78 percent have downloaded at least one browser add-on. This research along with focus groups and community usability studies led PicScout to configure its ImageExchange add-on to make the image search process easier. ImageExchange enables designers to continue to browse for images on Google, Yahoo, or other websites as part of their standard workflow, and now they can also quickly recognize which images are licensable and what type of image license it is as the information displays in a unique panel on the right-hand side of the web page.

"The task of searching for the right images can be a daunting task, and trying to find licensing information can be quite frustrating," said Craig Hooper, principal, Analogue. “With ImageExchange, I am now able to immediately access the licensor of the images I like, and even bookmark images for future designs. The add-on saves so much time and headache. It's intuitive and simple to use. I feel very confident that any one of our clients, young, old, technophile, or technophobe, could easily harness the power of ImageExchange from PicScout.”

PicScout conducted multiple focus groups to determine how to best construct the ImageExchange add-on to accommodate the exact workflow of creative professionals. As a result of these focus groups, PicScout determined that creative professionals wanted a centralized panel to collect all images found in a Google or Yahoo image search with licensing information catalogued in PicScout’s ImageIRC platform. Focus group participants also wanted to be able to view licensing information for images without having to click on an image.

To meet these needs, PicScout created a right-hand panel that identifies licensable images found in an image search or on a web page and displays the license type for each image. It also indicates the total number of licensable images found on the page. Additionally, users can close the sidebar, but continue to see a running total at the bottom of the browser indicating the total number of licensable images found. Because the new interface makes it easier for users to identify images at the point of experience, PicScout expects the number of transactions of licenses to expand substantially.  

“We designed the new ImageExchange interface to encourage creative professionals to use the add-on regularly. Whether they are searching for images to use for a client’s design project or browsing images for inspiration, all of those images should be readily licensable for immediate or future use,” said Amy Love, PicScout’s Global VP of Marketing and Business Development. “We are excited to be executing on our vision of a new era in which all digital images are accessible to view and purchase across a multitude of platforms—whether they be web-based, mobile devices, or tablets.

PicScout welcomes others to share how they expect the image marketplace to continue to evolve in the future on the PicScout Blog. For more information on ImageExchange or to download the new version of ImageExchange visit www.picscout.com/imageexchange.

About PicScout
Founded in 2002, PicScout is a leading information company. PicScout was ranked number 34 among media companies on Inc. Magazine's 2010 Inc. 5000 and included in the top half of Israel's Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in 2009 and 2010. The PicScout suite of products include the company's leading image-recognition ImageExchange and ImageTracker services, which provides Instant Image ID solutions for creative professionals and ensures Every Image Gets Its Credit for content creators. PicScout works in partnership with the world's most prestigious image copyright holders. The company offers a line of image promotion and protection solutions that meet the needs of stock photography agencies, professional photographers, publishers and image buyers. All PicScout solutions are based on proprietary patent-pending technologies. PicScout is a financially independent, privately held company with offices in Silicon Valley, Herzeliya, Israel and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, visit www.picscout.com.

PicScout, ImageExchange and ImageTracker are trademarks of PicScout. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.