Corbis acquires Bettmann; enriches media holdings with purchase of world-renowned photo agency.today announced the acquisition of The Bettmann Archive The Bettmann Archive is a collection of 11 million photographs and images, some going back to the United States Civil War and including some of the best known U.S. historic images. The Archive also includes many images from Europe and elsewhere. , one of the world's richest and most diverse image libraries. Purchased from the Kraus Organization Ltd., Bettmann will become an operating division of Corbis. Bettmann will continue to operate its existing business in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , providing its more than 16 million film and digital images to a variety of publishing and communications professionals. The acquisition will enable the two companies to leverage their respective collections and services in order to provide unsurpassed content and services, enhanced through new technologies, to clients around the world. "Corbis gains a wealth of expertise in providing service to customers, as well as access to an archive of immense value." said Doug Rowan, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Corbis. "Bettmann's experience in the commercial image-licensing business will be a tremendous asset to us; this partnership will create a force in digital content that will lead the industry." The acquisition of Bettmann's 16 million images expands Corbis' already comprehensive digital-media archive. The Corbis archive includes images from the collections of David Meunch, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art, established in 1875, chartered in 1876. When the city of Philadelphia planned to erect a building to house the Centennial Exposition of 1876, provision was made to keep the building permanently occupied; the Pennsylvania Museum and School , the Sakamoto Archive, the National Gallery of London, Richard Hamilton Richard Hamilton may refer to:
The Bettmann Archive includes an extraordinary amount of unique historical material, the contents of several news archives including the entire United Press International (UPI UPI abbr. United Press International ) collection, and a rich selection of images from the fields of dance, jazz, theater, film, vintage photography and the history of science. Images from Bettmann's popular collection appear on products as diverse as Snappler, Life magazine and the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The Bettmann Archive will remain in its current location in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . The existing management staff will continue at the company, with Herbert Gstalder as director. "With this purchase Corbis gains not only an astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, collection of photographic materials but also a thriving business located in the heart of the publishing and media market," said Gstalder. World's Largest Archive ----------------------- Founded in the 1930s by Dr. Otto Bettmann Otto Ludwig Bettmann (October 15, 1903 - May 3, 1998), known as "The Picture Man," was the founder of the Bettmann Archive. Bettmann is considered to have "virtually invented the image resource business."[1] He was born in Leipzig, Germany. , The Bettmann Archive has grown into one of the world's largest and most respected photo archives. The collection began with the photography of Dr. Bettmann, who emigrated to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. in 1935 fleeing the rise of Nazism in Europe. Dr. Bettmann's arrival coincided with the rise of photojournalism in the United States, and his picture-library business thrived as he expanded and updated his collection. In 1981, The Bettmann Archive was acquired by the Kraus Organization Ltd., which went on to build the agency to its current level of success, increasing its size and visibility. The images from the collection will be licensed to publishers of books, magazines, advertisements, films, television programs, documentaries, newspapers and other communications vehicles by both Bettmann and Corbis' image-licensing division, Corbis Media. The images will also be available to producers of online, CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). and other new-media products. Corbis Publishing, the consumer products division of Corbis, will use these images in its innovative, high-quality CD-ROM and online products. The Corbis archive is a collection of creative content with unsurpassed quality. The archive is broad in scope, ranging from biography and portraits, the arts, and history to science and technology, peoples and cultures, and sports. Each image in the archive has been digitized with state-of-the-art scanning equipment and cataloged with multiple links in a multimedia database. Search and retrieval techniques proprietary to Corbis enable its staff to access images in the collection for licensing to new-media developers, graphic designers and publishers for use in print and electronic applications. For more information on licensing digital images from the archive, contact Corbis Media at 800/260-0444. Bettmann will continue to license images from its collection; call 212/777-6200. Corbis is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. founded in 1989 by Bill Gates (person) Bill Gates - William Henry Gates III, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with Paul Allen. In 1994 Gates is a billionaire, worth $9.35b and Microsoft is worth about $27b. to create new uses and markets for high-quality digital content. The company is building a unique and comprehensive archive of high-quality digital imagery and creative materials. Corbis Media, a division of Corbis, licenses content from the digital archive to creative professionals. Corbis Publishing, another division of Corbis, produces and publishes innovative, high-quality CD-ROM and interactive online products for consumers, using the rich content in the Corbis archive. In 1995, Corbis Publishing released "A Passion for Art: Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse and Dr. Barnes," an award-winning CD-ROM title. For more information about the Corbis archive and its business divisions, visit the Corbis Web site at http://www.corbis.com. Corbis, Corbis Media and Corbis Publishing are based in Bellevue, Wash., with an office in London. -0- NOTE: Digital images from both the Bettmann and Corbis archives are available for use in articles pertaining to this announcement. Corbis and the Corbis logo are trademarks of Corbis Corp. CONTACT: Waggener Edstrom Angela Newlove, 206/637-9097 e-mail: angelan@wagged.com OR Corbis Corp. Laurie McEachron, 206/649-3363 e-mail: lauriemc@corbis.com NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email addresses noted in this news release, there is an "at" symbol between: -- angelan AND wagged.com -- lauriemc AND corbis.com These symbols may not appear properly (or at all) in some systems. |
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