Getty Images and Shutterstock are becoming one company

Getty Images and Shutterstock, two of the major stock image providers on the web, have announced that they will merge to create a single visual content company with an enterprise value of about $3.7 billion.

The combined company, Getty Images Holdings, Inc., will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "GETY." Getty Images said in a press release that the "merged company will be well‑positioned to meet the evolving needs of creative, media, and advertising industries through combined investment in content creation, event coverage, and product and technology innovation."

In other words, the new entity will have access to an even bigger content library. With more funds in one place, it can invest in innovative content creation, event coverage, and customer-facing technologies such as generative AI, 3D imagery, and search.

Getty Images added that the merger will bring new opportunities for content creators on the respective platforms. For reference, the company works with over 576,000 content creators and over 340 content partners. It also sources media from the coverage of over 160,000 news, sports, and entertainment events each year.

Brands such as iStock and Unsplash are also a part of Getty Images. The merger comes at a time when AI-powered image-generation tools are on the rise. The company has also added an AI image generator, powered by NVIDIA Edify and trained on its image library, to Getty Images and iStock websites. On the other hand, Shutterstock partnered with OpenAI to integrate its image generation tech.

You might be wondering what will happen to the Shutterstock website. A Getty Images spokesperson told The Verge that Shutterstock will continue to operate as a separate website after the merger.

Getty Images' current CEO, Craig Peters, will continue as the chief of the combined entity and will be one of the board members. However, the new eleven-member board will have six directors designated by Getty and four directors designated by Shutterstock, including its CEO Paul Hennessy.