Getty Images files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, goes private under $533 million restructuring

Getty Images filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on October 21. The Getty family and Koch Equity Development will own 100% of the company. They are committing up to $533 million in new equity to cut Getty's debt. Getty says operations, vendors and licensing relationships continue unaffected during the restructuring.

Restructuring terms cut Getty's balance sheet debt
Getty Images carried $2.1 billion in total debt as of June 30.
Unsecured bondholders agreed to retire $270 million of notes.
Secured lenders, holding roughly 89% of Getty's secured bonds, extended repayment and cut interest costs.
Koch Equity Development committed up to $143 million to finance the restructuring process.

Failed Shutterstock merger and litigation drove the filing
The $3.7 billion Shutterstock merger collapsed in June after UK regulators demanded divestment.
Getty refused to sell Shutterstock's editorial business, the deal's approval condition, and withdrew in July.
The company spent more than $100 million in fees pursuing that failed merger.
S&P Global downgraded Getty to CCC in September after a missed interest payment.
"That's probably the main bad driver, is just the debt and the litigation payments." - Brian Conneely, Analyst, S&P Global

Shares lost 99% of value since the 2022 SPAC return
Getty shares fell from $33 in August 2022 to $0.02 before the filing.
The 2022 SPAC deal had valued Getty at around $4.8 billion.
NYSE began delisting proceedings against Getty at the end of September.
Going private ends the second stretch of public trading since 2008.

Licensing continuity holds for creative and marketing clients
Getty says vendors, customers, contributors and employees remain unaffected by the filing.
Vendors will continue to be paid in full in the ordinary course of business.
Getty's editorial imagery, used by news and marketing clients, drove 38% of last year's revenue.
More than 600,000 contributors supply the licensed catalog that creative and UA buyers draw from.
S&P analysts warned Getty risked a default-like restructuring without this deal.
What this means
For Investors & VC: Stress-test leveraged gaming roll-ups for regulator-forced divestments and the cost of walking away from a deal.