Getty Images has ended its planned $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock after UK competition regulators required Shutterstock to sell its editorial business before the deal could go ahead, the Financial Times reported.
The decision brings to an end a transaction first announced in January 2025, when companies had hoped to combine their businesses to strengthen their place in the licensed visual content market as competition from AI image-generation platforms grows at scale.
Getty’s board approved the termination of the deal, according to a regulatory filing released on Tuesday.
Following the announcement, Shutterstock’s shares fell by more than 28% in after-hours trading in New York, closing around $10. Getty’s shares were largely unchanged.
The proposed merger had already received approval from regulators in the United States. However, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that combining the two companies would reduce competition in the market for editorial images supplied to news organisations.
In April, the regulator said Getty would have to ensure Shutterstock sold its editorial business to address those concerns. The business includes Shutterstock Editorial, Backgrid and Splash.
The CMA said at the time: “a loss of competition could lead to UK media outlets, large and small, facing a loss of choice or getting a more expensive service, with knock-on effects for consumers that rely on high-quality content to stay up to date”.
It also said selling Shutterstock’s global editorial business “would address those provisional concerns and could allow the deal to proceed”.
The regulator later gave conditional approval to the merger in May, provided the editorial division was sold. Getty instead chose to walk away from the transaction.
Neither Getty Images nor Shutterstock immediately responded to requests for comment on the merger termination.
The merger was expected to create one of the world’s largest providers of licensed photographs, videos and editorial images. Both companies supply visual content to media organisations, businesses and other customers worldwide.
The collapse of the deal leaves both companies facing pressure from the fast growth of AI-powered image-generation tools, which offer users faster and cheaper ways to create visual content.
Getty has sought to adapt by licensing its image library for AI model training under commercial agreements, while Shutterstock will now continue to operate independently after losing the expected benefits of the merger.
