Getty Images

Getty Images is a macrostock photography agency founded in 1995. Getty Images provides stock photography images as well as stock video footage and audio clips, free of charge and for purchase. Since its founding, Getty Images has acquired a number of other photography and media companies.

Getty Images was originally founded in London as Getty Communications by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein in 1995. Getty Communications acquired the competing stock photography company PhotoDisc in September 1997; the acquisition resulted in the formation of Getty Images, which relocated to Seattle, Washington. Since its founding, Getty Images has been owned by several entities, but as of 2022 it is owned by the Getty family. Getty Images was first sold in 2008 to Hellman & Friedman in a $2.4 billion deal. In August 2012, Getty Images was sold to The Carlyle Group for $3.3 billion. The company was sold once more in September 2018 back to Mark Getty's family.

Since its founding, Getty Images has acquired many other stock footage companies on both the micro and macro levels. Some of its most notable acquisitions through the years include iStock, Scoopt, and Unsplash.

Getty Images originally launched its stock publicly, listed as GYI on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The stock went private in 2008 after the company was acquired by Hellman & Friedman. In December 2021, as a result of a partnership with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) valued at $4.8 billion, Getty Images decided to become public again and will list stock for the second time on the NYSE under the new ticker GETY. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2022.

A large number of stock images, as well as video footage and sound clips, are available on Getty Images, free of charge and for purchase. Purchasable content is bundled by image size and video quality with tiered pricing; 2022 prices for small images and low-resolution videos are $175 per download, medium images and standard definition videos are $375 per download, and large images and high-definition or 4K videos are $499 per download. Buyers can either make single purchases or prepay for packs of five or ten files in each category for a lesser cost per download.