Jim Pickerell’s Selling Stock newsletter (a subscription site on the stock photo industry: http://www.pickphoto.com/) interviewed David Neilson of Photonica. I broadly quoted the previous piece about the sale without attribution, a sin for which I am now atoning. Jim has graciously given me permission to quote a portion of the interview.
From Neilson:
"I read your analysis on the sale of Photonica to Getty Images, most of which is untrue. I wouldn't recommend you publish too much more from the 'industry insiders' who provided you with this information. I would like the opportunity of setting the record straight and having the following corrections made:
"In acquiring Photonica, Getty Images have what is now, and always has been, unquestionably THE premier high-end stock brand. Indeed the most recent content is without doubt Photonica's best ever. Not my opinion but that of clients, photographers and industry peers all over the world. I have plenty of evidence to back this up.
"The western entities of amana have been very profitable. The past three years alone were our most profitable ever! Furthermore, we have demonstrated excellent revenue growth over the same period, with in particular 2004 up almost 17% on 2003. Very few of our same-level industry peers can boast organic growth anything similar.
'The reason Getty Images was chosen as the buyer had nothing to do with the patent litigation."
Keeping Photonica out of Corbis' hands was absolutely not the reason Getty Images acquired Photonica. They have long recognized Photonica's brand values and strong content. Leveraging this through their own large distribution channel makes very powerful commercial sense. That is the real reason.
Elsewhere in the interview Neilson says it is undecided how Getty will treat sales of US photographers who make sales in Japan. It could become a sub-agent relationship whereupon another hunk out of my commission will be sliced out. I am unusual among US Photonica photographers in that I make a significant amount of my sales in Japan (my style seems more in sync with that culture perhaps), so this will bite.
Another Photonica colleague, who has also done quite well with Getty, wrote that he is pleased about the sale, as Getty is brilliant in the sales arena, unlike Photonica. He concludes, "The Borg has won. I will be assimilated."
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