Envato is being bought out by Shutterstock

The popular digital asset company Envato (We Envato here) is being bought by Shutterstock, the company has revealed today. Founded in 2006, Envato has become a major resource for photographers, filmmakers, YouTubers and other creatives.

The Australia-based company was launched in his parents’ garage by Collis Ta’eed, along with his wife Cyan Ta’eed, and Jun Rung, for around $90,000. Envato hasn’t revealed how much Shutterstock is paying to acquire them, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet it’ll be significantly higher.

Envato – More than just stock photos and music

Envato has grown to become one of the largest digital asset companies out there – or at least one of the most well-known. As well as the extremely popular Envato Elements, Envato also has the Envato Market, Placeit, Tuts+, Mixkit and Reshot platforms.

Exactly what the terms of the deal are, and whether all of Envato’s assets or just some of them will be transferred to Shutterstock isn’t quite clear at the moment. But the company says that things will be chugging along as normal for at least the near future.

It seems that stock isn’t dead, after all. Envato sent out a statement to its affiliates informing them of the news.

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news with you. Envato has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Shutterstock, a global leader in creative content. This agreement is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of this calendar year.

We see this as a pivotal moment in Envato’s journey and are excited for the future. We have confidence in the alignment of values and the strong strategic fit that underpin this expected union between Envato and Shutterstock. We wanted to take a moment to update you about what this means for our partnership going forward.

First and foremost, we want to emphasize that our commitment to you remains unwavering. Envato’s mission remains the same — helping creatives make their mark globally. The services and support you have come to expect from us, and the relationship we have with you, will remain.

We will keep you informed of any important updates that come with this transition.

We are incredibly grateful for your continued partnership and support. We are genuinely excited about the possibilities this acquisition brings and look forward to better serving the creative community together.

Envato Affiliates Team

Who is Shutterstock?

Shutterstock is an American company, founded in 2003. It has grown to have an estimated value of $1.04 billion, with many other brands under its belt.

As well as their own service of the same name, Shutterstock also owns many other popular services. These include Giphy, TurboSquid, Bigstock, Pond5, Splash News, Offset, Rex Features, BEImages, PremiumBeat, and Rocketstock.

When everything will happen and what, if anything, will change remains to be seen. But Shutterstock isn’t new to buying up other companies, and they don’t seem to have made too much of a mess of things when they’ve done it in the past.

That being said, the company has been seeing some controversy lately, having allowed Apple to train their AI on its data – for a $25-50 million fee. And it upset a lot of photographers and other artists by running a contest specifically for AI-generated images.

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