Getty Images files prepackaged Chapter 11 to cancel its stock and go private

As of 2:58 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026

Getty Images Holdings and several of its subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to carry out a prepackaged plan of reorganization, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the plan, all shares of Getty Images' Class A common stock and all other existing equity interests will be canceled on the plan's effective date, and holders, including the company's majority shareholders, will not receive or retain any distribution, the filing says. The company said it expects to emerge as a privately held company owned by its new equity investors.

Who is putting in money

Getty Images said the restructuring includes an equity investment of up to $533 million from members of the Getty family, through certain of their affiliated entities, and affiliates of Koch Equity Development. The company said it expects to fund the restructuring with financing from a Koch Equity Development affiliate of up to $143 million, in addition to cash from ongoing operations.

The plan is backed by a restructuring support agreement signed Oct. 12 with the company's majority shareholders and certain holders of all of its outstanding funded debt, according to the filing. The company began soliciting votes on the plan on Oct. 20, before filing, and expects to finish that process during the Chapter 11 cases.

The debt

As of the filing date, the companies in the case had about $1.46 billion in funded debt, and annual interest expense of about $154 million "has consumed a substantial portion of the Company's free cash flow," according to the disclosure statement filed with the plan.

The disclosure statement says that when the company emerges from Chapter 11, it will have reduced its funded debt by more than $500 million. It projects about $65 million in annual interest savings, a reduction in annual debt service of about $133 million, and about $75 million in cash on the balance sheet at emergence.

The bankruptcy filing triggered acceleration of the company's term loans, revolving loans and three series of notes, the 8-K says, though enforcement is automatically stayed under the Bankruptcy Code.

What the company says caused it

In the disclosure statement, the company says its core businesses "remain strong and show steady growth," and attributes its financial condition to "non-operational events that depleted the Company's liquidity over an eighteen-month period: large adverse Warrant Litigation judgments, the extension and ultimate collapse of a merger process due to an adverse foreign regulatory determination, and an unsustainable debt service burden on a capital structure that is too highly levered for the Company's current business."

The merger was Getty Images' planned combination with Shutterstock. According to the disclosure statement, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority required the divestiture of Shutterstock's entire editorial business as a condition of the deal, and Getty's board decided on June 30 to terminate the merger agreement. Claims tied to the company's public warrants will be canceled without distribution under the plan, the filing says.

Business as usual, the company says

Getty Images said it will keep operating in the ordinary course and expects no impact on content contributors, partners, customers, employees or vendors. It has asked the court for authority to pay employee wages and benefits and to pay vendors, suppliers and content contributors in the ordinary course, according to the 8-K. The plan contemplates that general unsecured claims will be unimpaired.

"Today's filing is a procedural step to implement the financial restructuring previously announced," Chief Executive Officer Craig Peters said in a statement. "Getty Images continues to operate normally, serving customers and supporting contributors and partners around the world."

The company said it expects to complete the restructuring by year's end after customary regulatory approvals. It was formally delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 12, according to the disclosure statement. The plan still needs court approval.