What does Shenk think about all of you?

Interesting article on the rise of Microstock and amateur photogs for everyone out there. Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself.

Here is the last sentence of the article, ""There will be a shake-out in this space in the coming years but we're happy with what we are doing. We think Corbis has the resources and patience to succeed in the long-term. We will beat them with better [commercial] execution.""

I agree with him about Corbis having the resources (see Bill Gate's pocketbook) and the shakeout (see LO and hearing Albumo up against the ropes) but we will have to wait and see if they can execute better. Up to this point they haven't instilled us with confidence.

Breaking News

Corbis on the verge of Profitability. CEO Gary Shenk mused "I have the moment planned when I can send Bill Gates the first dollar." Bravoooo.

And in other news, Corbis laid off 3/4 of its staff today to get there.

Corbis offers Bloggers Ads with Corbis Images embedded in them ;-)

Corbis, Mr. Billy Gate's stock photography house, will allow users to download images for their blogs from its website free of charge. Butttttt.....

And there is always a but in these things. The catch is that each photo which is downloaded will either include an ad overlay on part of the image, or embedded advertising that pops up when a Web user runs a cursor over the picture. Each photo that is downloaded will also come with an embedded banner advertisement beneath the photo. The service will allow people with blogs to add copyrighted images legally, said CEO Gary Shenk at the Reuters Media Summit in NYC on Tuesday. The service is in beta testing right now.

Another One Bites the Dust - Corbis buys Veer

Say it ain't so Joe. The last of the "Independents" feel like they are gone. We have always been a big fan of Veer. They have one of the best designed sites, reek of coolness, offer Veer merchandise to buyers who make large purchases which they use effectively to promote themselves and have very creative emails, which we actually open and enjoy here at Cutcaster. And now onto the sad news ;-)

Well, they are no longer independent but I hope they stay just as cool. Corbis, mighty Mr. Bill Gate's company, picked them up as well as some cool Veer merchandise at the same time for being such a great buyer ;-) today for an undisclosed sum of cash. Rumors of either Getty or Corbis gobbling them up had been swirling for the last month and was hitting the wires again today. Seems to me that Veer lacked a truly productive sales force to handle it's clientele and they reached a tipping point. They can now leverage the Corbis sales structure to handle that and Corbis gets the cool branding that Veer represented.

Here is a link to the press release.

We haven't heard anything more than grumblings at Cutcaster but has anyone heard what the price was? I'd say at least 8 figures in the range of 10-20mm but what do we know.