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$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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Elon Musk at Donald Trump Rally At Madison Square Garden In NYC

The Tesla directors who just proposed giving Elon Musk a trillion dollars say it’s “critical” he stay out of politics

Even still, the company doesn’t appear to be putting up hard guardrails for Musk’s political ambitions.

$1T

Tesla jumped more than 2% premarket on Friday after the company proposed an unprecedented roughly $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, according to proxy filings.

To receive the massive payout, Musk will have to increase the company’s market cap to $8.5 trillion from the approximately $1 trillion it is today over the next 10 years.

The pay package also requires that Musk expand Tesla’s product offerings to include 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation and the “delivery of 1 million AI Bots.” Currently the company has about 30 autonomous robotaxis in its invite-only Austin ride-hailing service, though this week the company expanded the waitlist for the service to everyone. Tesla's Optimus robots are still under development.

Musk would also have to take part in his own succession planning and develop a framework for who’s to follow him.

Investors have historically tied the fate of Tesla with Musk, so holding on to him for an extended period of time and having his blessing for the succession plan is typically seen as good news for the stock.

“We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” the filing reads. “Simply put, retaining and incentivizing Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history.”

A judge twice struck down Musk’s previous $56 billion compensation package. Last month the board approved a $30 billion interim pay package, saying that “retaining Elon is more important than ever.”

Shareholders will vote on the pay package at their annual meeting on November 6.

Old Navy store on 34th street in New York City, U.S.

Gap pops as the denim giant takes a big swing into beauty and accessories

The retailer is piloting beauty through shop-in-shops at Old Navy before rolling it out to Gap stores next year.

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