New ownership and debt terms
The prepackaged restructuring provides for as much as $533 million (£400 million) in equity commitments from Getty family and Koch affiliates, alongside up to $143 million (£107 million) in financing from a Koch affiliate. The new owners would hold all of the reorganized company's equity, with possible dilution from a management incentive plan. Current shareholders would receive nothing for their shares.
Getty announced its Restructuring Support Agreement on October 12. Investors holding 83.5% of its unsecured bonds backed the retirement of $270 million (£203 million) in senior unsecured notes. Those noteholders are to receive aggregate cash payments of about $170.2 million (£128 million).
Support for lower interest obligations and longer debt maturities came from holders of approximately 89% of Getty's secured bonds and term loans, as well as all of its revolving credit facility lenders.
Only certain U.S. entities are included in the bankruptcy, not the entire group. The petition places assets and liabilities in the same range: $1 billion to $10 billion (£750 million to £7.5 billion) each. Getty's October disclosures also say its Class A common stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and now trades on the OTC Pink Limited Market as OTCPK: GETY.
Koch Equity Development, the principal investment arm of Koch, Inc., has deployed more than $40 billion in equity investments and acquisitions since 2012, according to Getty's restructuring announcement. Koch companies have revenues exceeding $125 billion and employ about 130,000 people worldwide.
Investor disputes accelerated the filing
Getty's bankruptcy attorney told Reuters that litigation by investors brought forward the Chapter 11 filing. The attorney cited roughly $200 million (£150 million) in legal judgments, plus potential liabilities of $275 million (£206 million) tied to warrant disputes.
The investors alleged that they had been improperly blocked from exercising warrants associated with Getty's 2022 stock market listing. CEO Craig Peters said the restructuring would address the company's capital structure and certain non-operating liabilities while supporting expanded investment in content and services.
Getty's disclosures had also expressed substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Its 2025 Form 10-K was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2026, and amended on April 27.
Fast Company, in a report republished by Yahoo Finance, put Getty's valuation about four years before the bankruptcy at $4.8 billion, describing the filing as a steep decline from that earlier value.
Shutterstock merger ended after conditional UK approval
The bankruptcy follows the abandonment of Getty's proposed combination with Shutterstock. Announced in January 2025, the merger valued the combined business at approximately $3.7 billion (£2.8 billion). The companies anticipated $150 million to $200 million (£113 million to £150 million) in yearly cost savings within three years after closing.
In May 2026, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority said the deal could go ahead on condition that Shutterstock's global editorial business be sold to an approved buyer. That business includes the Shutterstock Editorial, Backgrid and Splash brands. The companies had offered to sell the entire operation during the regulator's phase 1 review.
The CMA's final report found no competition concerns in stock content. It pointed to the development of generative AI during its investigation and evidence that large AI companies without libraries of pre-shot stock content were likely to compete increasingly with Getty and Shutterstock. The regulator also expected stronger competitive pressure from Adobe and Canva.
Getty terminated the merger agreement on July 7, ending both the planned combination and its anticipated savings. The termination also required redemption of Getty's outstanding 10.500% senior secured notes due in 2030 under a special mandatory redemption provision. Investing.com reported that $628.4 million in notes were covered.
AI competition and Getty's revenue mix
Getty's own 2025 annual report warned that customers might substitute AI-generated images and videos for licensed material. It also identified a risk that systems trained on Getty content could produce competing work, with consequences for demand, website traffic and revenue.
Commercial stock photography and other creative products supplied 56.7% of revenue in 2025, compared with 58.9% in 2024. Editorial imagery, covering news, sports and entertainment, represented 37.7%, up from 36.8%. Getty also sells generative AI products and licenses material for AI training.
Limited UK ruling in Stability AI case
Getty brought a lawsuit against Stability AI in 2023, alleging that its images had been used without authorization to train the Stable Diffusion image-generation model. The UK case addressed copyright and trademark claims concerning the system's development and output.
On November 4, 2025, the High Court of England and Wales ruled that some generated images containing Getty and iStock watermarks constituted limited trademark infringement. Several copyright claims had been abandoned by Getty, and the judgment did not provide the broad copyright relief it originally sought. Litigation in the United States remained ongoing.
Business and contributor payments to continue
Peters described the Chapter 11 filing as "a procedural step to implement the financial restructuring previously announced." He said Getty continued to operate normally. The plan is intended to avoid disruption to ordinary business and payments to contributors, customers, employees and business partners.
Getty operates the Getty Images, iStock and Unsplash brands. Its October 2026 announcement described a network of more than 600,000 content creators and more than 360 content partners, with coverage of over 160,000 news, sports and entertainment events annually.
The company's 2025 disclosures put its archive at more than 645 million images and videos. Royalty payments to contributors and content partners exceeded $220 million (£165 million) that year.
