Business
$3.7B

Getty Images announced on Tuesday that it’s struck a deal to merge with Shutterstock, creating a combined stock-image company worth $3.7 billion. 

The merger appears to be a move to better compete with products like Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E, which use artificial intelligence to create fake images. Substack, for one, has a free AI image generator that produces stock photos that aren’t great but might be a decent alternative for bloggers on a budget. 

Getty and Shutterstock, the two dominant stock-image providers in the US, could face antitrust scrutiny for the merger. They would likely argue that they are competing with companies beyond their traditional peers, like AI firms. 

A similar argument didn’t bode well for Kroger and Albertsons, which had their proposed merger scrapped last year. They argued they were competing in the greater retail space with the likes of Walmart, but both regulators and the courts took the stance that grocery stores compete with grocery stores and supercenters compete with supercenters.

Still, the regulatory environment could be getting softer in the coming months, with the Trump administration expected to allow mergers to happen more freely.

Investors seem to think the deal will close: in early trading, Getty’s and Shutterstocks share prices shot up about 40% and 20%, respectively.

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Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.

Ford plant Cologne

Ford rallies to 52-week high: Wall Street is optimistic about its EV reset and aluminum plant recovery plan

Ford shares reached their highest level since July 2024 in Friday morning trading.

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