The founders of Getty Images are set to pocket almost $2 billion (£1.6 billion) from the sale of their stake in the company after activist investor Trillium Capital said it had made a cash offer to take the company private.
Trillium, which already owns 500,000 shares in the New-York listed business, has offered to buy the rest at $10 each in a deal which values the company at just shy of $4 billion.
Founders Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein - who founded the business in London in 1995 - currently jointly control some 49.6% of the company via personal shares and family offices according to a March 2023 filing.
Trillium Capital said its proposal is non-binding and it may permit the founders to roll some of their own shares into the deal instead of selling them. However, the firm said it planned to oust Mark Getty as chair and replace him with its managing partner.
“Should our non-binding proposal be accepted, and we close the proposed transaction, we would expect that our Managing Partner will join the Board of Getty and become its Chairman,” Trillium said.
“He has decades of experience in corporate governance, strategy, finance, technology and building scale companies.
“We urge the Board to enter a non-disclosure agreement with us and allow us to commence due diligence as soon as possible. We believe that our non-binding proposal might create substantial value for the shareholders of Getty.”
Following the announcement Getty shares rose 46% to $7.39, but failed to hit the $10/share offer price in signs investors were not wholly persuaded a deal would be reached.
Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, who studied at Oxford and Cambridge universities respectively, launched the business in London in 1995 before setting up in the US in 2006. The firm grew to be one of the biggest stock image and video supplier in the world, with sales of over $750 million in 2022.
Mark is the grandson of the notorious British-American billionaire J Paul Getty, who founded the Getty Oil Company, making him one of the richest-ever Americans.
