US cleared, UK blocked: Getty-Shutterstock merger collapses

Getty Images is walking away from its planned $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock, following a regulatory roadblock in the United Kingdom that the company says is too costly to accept. The decision comes just months after the U.S. Department of Justice gave the deal its full unconditional antitrust clearance back in February.

According to an SEC filing published Tuesday, Getty has informed regulators that it is “not required to accept” the conditions set by the UK Competition and Markets Authority last month. Those conditions would have forced Shutterstock to sell off its global editorial business, which includes the paparazzi agencies Backgrid and Splash. Getty’s board of directors voted unanimously on July 6th to terminate the merger agreement, with an effective date of July 7th unless circumstances change. That effectively leaves the deal dead.

The merger was originally pitched as a way for the two stock photo giants to combine resources and better compete against a growing threat: AI image generators that can produce fast, cheap media content on demand. But the UK’s demands proved too onerous for Getty to stomach, and the company has opted to walk away rather than restructure the deal.

This is not the first time UK regulators have derailed a major tech merger. In 2021, the CMA ordered Meta to sell Giphy over competition concerns, a deal that eventually ended with Shutterstock acquiring the GIF platform in 2023.