now stick and stock and editorial image marketplace. Getty
Images is making its public debut through a SPAC merger
with CC Neuberger principal holdings to this will give the
image sharing platform an enterprise value of$4.8 billion.
Once the transaction is closed, get these newly formed
parent company will be become publicly traded in. Its
common stock will be listed on the new york stock
exchange under the ticker symbol of G E T Y
. Keep in mind, it's the second time Getty
will be a publicly traded company. It was previously
taken private in 2008, joining me now is craig
, Peters ceo of Getty Images and craig congrats on
the merger. First off, so tell me why
is now the right time to go public. Well
, first off, thank you for having me,
thank you for being a customer as cheddar is a
customer of Getty Images and I did my best to
represent the metaverse building on the prior interview. So
I'm coming to you today from, from the metaverse
, leveraging some of our great imagery. Um,
but you know the question of why now, um
, it's it's fairly simple, We feel really good
about the company's performance. We feel uh we have
great opportunities ahead of us to continue that performance.
Um, we really found a partner in CC Neuberger
which is a combination of Neuberger, Berman CC Capital
and the commitments that they were willing to make as
part of this transaction. This transaction includes$800 million
dollars worth of guaranteed capital into the business. So
those combinations gave us the confidence to go ahead and
proceed and come back take of what is a great
company in my view and a great brand back to
the public markets. What are some things you are
planning to invest with that kind of capital coming in
? Well, you know, it really we're going
to pay down some debt that sits against this business
. As as as a private company. We had
higher levels of leverage that's going to really enable a
lot of additional free cash flow and financial flexibility into
the business. It's gonna allow us to just invest
more aggressively into the business to accelerate what is already
accelerating growth. Now get it took a bit of
a hit during the pandemic when events were paused and
now that events are reopening and opened is business improving
? And why are you looking? Where are you
looking rather for growth opportunities? Yeah, well I
think first off I would say, you know,
we've fared Well during the pandemic. So in 2020
, while we did see some impacts to our sport
and entertainment business within editorial, the balance of the
business group. Um and we actually grew over the
second half of last year. Um and uh Accelerating
growth this year, we're growing not only relative to
a 2020 compare But relative to a 2019 compare.
Um and as things like entertainment, which is showing
a great image there uh continues to come back.
Um we're only seeing that add into our growth as
we look into 2022 now, how will this SPAC
merger help getting, maintain both its legacy library of
content and also evolve with technology and media? Well
, you know, really, again, this is
about just enabling us to be more aggressive in what
we've already been doing. So, you know,
we sit in an incredibly visual world and get images
. Job is to help businesses basically compete um for
attention in that world and connect with audiences. And
so we're excited to continue to do what we've been
focused in on. And that starts to your point
with a great fundamental library of content. And we're
constantly adding to that. Um not just in terms
of our archives, but we're adding to that in
terms of our coverage. And then we are bringing
, yeah, we don't really great expertise and new
creative content to allow brands to promote their products and
services, et cetera. Um And so we expect
to continue to do that. We've, you know
, recently signed as the official photographer of of Formula
One. Earlier this year, we added NBC news
archive last year we made an acquisition and Unspool Ash
, which takes us out into the creative long tail
economy and all of those things, we just expect
to do more of as we come back to the
public markets with reduced leverage. Now we're talking about
new new venues, new ventures and the potential for
digital assets seems to be only growing as N.
F. T. S. Now taking up a
large space are becoming more popular. So is getty
getting in on N. F. T. S
. And you mentioned your backdrop or even the universe
in this case. Well I I think one of
the things that I have a belief in and I
think it's it's true over time for thousands of years
, which is whether you're in a cave or you're
in the metaverse, imagery is important, right?
We use pictures to tell stories, we have affinity
to two items and uh passions around things like sport
and music and others. And so I think the
relevance of our of our imagery and of our like
library is incredibly relevant as we move into the metaverse
. Or we start thinking about N. F.
T. S. Um and our job will be
to to be substantive in in that and how we
build a business around it and add to the growth
of getting images. Um you know, we're one
that we're substantive business. We try to build real
strategies, build real revenues, real profits. Um
and we'll take a very pragmatic approach to these opportunities
but we fundamentally I believe that imagery is going to
be important going forward as it has been for thousands
of years. Craig. Peters ceo of getting images
craig again. Congratulations. And I agree with you
. I think visuals are the way to go.
We've seen it everywhere. It only evolves. I
appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being
with us.