Seattle-based Corbis Corporation has announced that its massive collection of over 100 million images and 800,000 video clips has been sold to Visual China Group, a Chinese investment company whose majority owner is Getty Images.
Corbis, originally founded by Bill Gates in 1990, announced this morning that all still and motion picture archives, along with all names and branding trademarks, would be sold to Visual China Group for an undisclosed sum.
In the press release, Visual China Group CEO Amy Jun Liang writes:
Corbis is a world-leading and widely esteemed brand in the image industry, and we are thrilled to add this treasure-house of valuable image assets to our premium brand portfolios […] The transaction strengthens our dominant position in China’s image industry, enhances our core competence in the global high-end image market, and marks a significant milestone on our journey of globalization.
Over the course of the next few months, all 100 million images and 800,000 video clips will be transferred over to Getty Images.
Once this transition is complete, Gett Images will become the exclusive global distributor of Corbis content outside of China, adding to Getty’s already impressive archive of 200 million images.
