The companies initially agreed to the deal in order to fend off AI competition.
Getty Images has moved to terminate a $3.7 billion merger with rival Shutterstock due to restrictions imposed by UK regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported. The canceled agreement between the two stock photo giants shows that US approval isn't necessarily all that's needed to get a deal done.
Getty and Shutterstock announced the planned merger back in January 2025, with the aim of creating a stock photo giant that could handle expected AI image competition. The new company would have been branded Getty Images Holdings Inc. and was described as "transformational" by Getty CEO Craig Peters.
The US Department of Justice had already granted "unconditional antitrust clearance" for the deal earlier this year. However, the UK's Competitions and Markets Authority announced in May that it wouldn't approve the merger unless Shutterstock sold its global editorial business including its celebrity and news photo agencies. The reason, it said, was that "a loss of competition between the two businesses would reduce choice for UK media outlets and could lead to higher prices."
With those requirements, Getty's board decided unanimously to "not proceed with the process to sell Shutterstock's editorial business... and to terminate the merger agreement," according to its SEC filing. That means the deal is dead barring "material change in the aforementioned circumstances" before July 7th.
Both Getty and Shutterstock recently inked deals with OpenAI, allowing their watermarked images to show up in ChatGPT search results. Despite their prevalence in social media, though, major media sites have so far largely avoided AI-generated imagery. The UK's restrictions also show the dangers that Paramount faces from the UK and other territories with its blockbuster Warner Brothers Discovery merger, despite US DoJ approval.