Image Source Group acquires Cultura Creative to create premium content powerhouse
8th October 2012: Image Source and Cultura Creative today announced the merger of their businesses, two of the most respected brands in premium quality stock photography in the world. The new business which will operate under the Image Source Group umbrella come together in an exciting deal that on day one will have over a quarter of a million premium images under their collective management and a production power house capable of generating both quality and volume of content going forward.
Image Source was founded by Christina Vaughan who is also the President of global industry trade body, CEPIC, in 1999 and has grown in to one of the strongest premium brands in the world with a reputation for quality, integrity and commercial relevance. Image Source has offices in both London and New York and has an enviable global distribution network in over 80 countries of the world. Image Source licenses Still Images, Footage and Cross Media under both Royalty Free and Rights Managed license types and also operates its own boutique direct to customer offering at www.imagesource.com.
Cultura Creative was founded in 2007 by Anthony Harris, former VP of Photographer Relations at Getty Images, the largest provider of photography and digital media in the world. Cultura has been one of the fastest growing business’ in the industry in the past few years with a strong photocentric bias and a reputation for quality, intelligence and market relevance.
Christina remains as Chief Executive Officer of the new entity with Anthony joining as Chief Operating Officer. David Bloom, also ex-Getty Images, becomes the group’s Chief Financial Officer. Mobeus Equity Partners retains its investment in the business. The company aims to maintain the existing collections of Image Source and Cultura but will look to expand and develop in key markets, expanding its North American and Asian reach, as well as taking a progressive approach to new product innovation.
Christina commented “I am absolutely delighted to announce this deal. I have enormous respect for the experience and knowledge that David and Anthony bring to the business and recognize the wonderful opportunity that this merger will bring to allow both our businesses to grow and flourish in a changing market. I am very excited about all the possibilities that this deal brings for our customers, our photographers and partners. Anthony and David are welcome additions to our Board and Senior Leadership Team and we look forward to delivering an even higher level of service to our photographers and partners across the world”
Anthony commented, “This is an important transaction for both our companies. We recognize the strong cultural fit, a shared commitment and passion for high end premium priced imagery, and an opportunity to provide market driven art direction, better systems and more licensing opportunities to our photographers and agents. These are exciting times – we share a strong and aligned vision for the future and will be working on several key initiatives to ensure our continued innovation, expansion and creativity across the world.”
David Bloom, the Group’s new Chief Financial Officer commented, “the proforma financials on the merged business were compelling from Day 1. We quickly realised how complementary the businesses and their management were to each other. We have got a busy time integrating the business by year end and will be starting 2013 laser focused on delivering value to our stakeholders. I'm excited about the next phase of growth“
Image Source retained Olswangs’ Senior Media Partner, Stephen Rosen to advise on the transaction.
About Image Source
Image Source is the world's leading producer of premium royalty free stock imagery, motion and Cross-Media content. Headquartered in London, UK, with a regional office in New York, the company also supplies imagery through over 200 partners worldwide. This strong international sales network enabled the company to win the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2005.
www.imagesource.com is currently the only platform in the industry able to showcase matched still images and motion clips displayed side-by-side for any given keyword search result, enabling creative art buyers to fulfill an integrated multimedia campaign brief in one simple purchase path.
Search for royalty free high quality stock photos, images, video, footage, clips and Cross-Media content 24/7 on www.imagesource.com
About Cultura Creative
Cultura Creative is the fastest growing producer of rights managed and royalty free premium imagery in Europe. It began in 2006 when former Vice President of Getty Images, Anthony Harris, brought together 21 founding photographers to create a very special agency. Cultura Creative's stock image collections are available to purchase direct, and through a global network of leading agents. Cultura Creative delivers creatively consistent, impactful imagery that connects with professional media buying audiences from its headquarters in London’s Soho.
To search for stock images by keyword, photographer or collection, click on www.culturacreative.com
