Getty Images shows the inimitable value of an OpenAI photobomb

{"text":[[{"start":4.5,"text":"For some companies AI is a curse; for others it’s a cure — and the market is nothing if not fickle in deciding which is which. Getty Images gave a clear snapshot of this volatility on Monday: its shares more than doubled after it gave vague details of a tie-up with arch disrupter OpenAI. This enthusiastic response ought to encourage other companies wondering whether to let the AI fox into the henhouse."}],[{"start":28.7,"text":"Investors have been furiously selling companies whose products can be convincingly replicated or, worse, improved upon, by AI. Getty, which licenses images of everything from World Cup games to women laughing at salad, is in the crosshairs. While it has fought vigorously to defend its copyright in the courts, and its prodigious digital library is a rare asset, the fact remains that AI has made it easy to conjure up photorealistic images of more or less anything at the click of a mouse."}],[{"start":58.099999999999994,"text":"Those facing AI disruption can defend themselves — Getty has been formulating its own generative AI offerings — but doing so takes money, and ideally an unencumbered balance sheet. Getty is laden with debt, with $1.3bn of net borrowings by the end of 2025, around four times its ebitda. That doesn’t include debt it has taken on to buy rival Shutterstock, a deal which will bring considerable cost savings, but is yet to close."}],[{"start":85.94999999999999,"text":"Unhelpfully, this is the second time Getty has found itself on the wrong end of a trend. The company went public in 2022 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or Spac — a financial wheeze that generally leaves a trail of broken hearts. Getty’s shares, as of the end of last week, were down 94 per cent since its debut, even worse than the 87 per cent median drop for Spac mergers overall, according to ListingTrack data."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":110.99999999999999,"text":"It’s easy to see why investors might welcome the idea of recurring, predictable revenue from the mighty OpenAI, which will now show Getty’s images in response to ChatGPT user searches. Getty has missed analysts’ earnings estimates in 12 of the last 16 financial quarters, according to LSEG. Growth has proved elusive, and ad agencies, roughly 12 per cent of the company’s revenue and shrinking, are in an existential rut."}],[{"start":138.5,"text":"It remains to be seen exactly what kind of financial benefits will come from the tie-up. Detail is key: investors might recall BuzzFeed, another Spac merger, whose shares rocketed when it announced an OpenAI collaboration in 2023, only to slump to below where they started within months. There’s no guarantee OpenAI will turn Getty into a bona fide AI beneficiary. But the jump in its shares shows it is definitely sensible to try."}],[{"start":172.9,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782200077_1347.mp3"}