The giant photo stock asks bankruptcy protection

Getty Images, the world’s largest stock photo and video licensing company, will apply for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11) in the United States (US). The announcement on Monday (12/10/2026) marks a new round for the company whose photos adorn millions of news worldwide, and is now widely by Indonesian media on Thursday (15/10/2026).

Chapter 11 is a U.S. court process that allows companies to remain operational while restructuring debt; this is not liquidation and Getty is not closed. Since the major creditors have already approved the plan before submission (prepackaged), the process is expected to be much shorter and targeted to be shut down by the end of 2026.

Rescue scheme: $533 million injection

Getty and Koch Equity Development (KED) family members have committed to injecting new equities of up to US$533 million, or roughly Rp8.8 trillion, and will control 100 percent of the company once the restructuring is completed.

Holders of 83.5 percent of unsecured bonds agreed to remove $270 million of senior debt, while approximately 89 percent of guaranteed creditors and lenders agreed to reduce interest payments and extend maturity.

The company affirms operations are running normally, the vendors are fully paid, and there is no expected impact on contributors, customers, or employees. Submissions only cover specific U.S. entities. Instead, public shareholders are warned of the possibility of losing their entire share value.

Unable to fuse as a trigger

At the end of June 2026, Getty had a debt of around US$2.1 billion or around Rp37.7 trillion with free cash of only US$51.6 million. Income for the second quarter of 2026 was US$229.1 million, down 2.5 percent, while annual customers fell 25.2 percent to 240,000.

Last year's bailout plan was a $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock's rival. The deal reached in January 2025 was void on July 7, 2026 after the competition and market authority (CMA) approved it only on the condition that Shutterstock sold its publishing business.

At the same time, Getty is facing an impasse of artificial intelligence (AI) image generators. Text-to-video devices are now producing generic image types that were once the main stock photo business fields. Since reaching the stock exchange through SPAC in 2022 with a valuation of US$4.8 billion, Getty’s stock has dropped about 99 percent until the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) began its delisting process at the end of September 2026.