CMA conditionally clears Getty merger with Shutterstock

The United Kingdom CMA’s independent inquiry group has concluded the merger between Getty and Shutterstock (SSTK) “would lead to competition concerns for editorial content supplied to UK media outlets, but not for stock content supplied globally,” the competition watchdog announed. “The inquiry group concluded that a sale of Shutterstock’s global editorial business, which operates under the Shutterstock Editorial, Backgrid and Splash brands and competes with Getty across live and archive news, sport and entertainment content, could resolve the competition concerns identified. Getty and Shutterstock offered to sell Shutterstock’s global editorial business at the end of the CMA’s phase 1 investigation, previously describing it as ‘peripheral to Shutterstock’s core operations’. Once a sale of the Shutterstock editorial business is concluded to a CMA-approved purchaser, the Getty and Shutterstock merger, which the businesses have claimed will produce cost synergies of $150-200 million annually, can proceed,” the CMA stated.