Getty to Acquire Photonica and Iconica

Getty Images will acquire Photonica West, the producer of high-end, rights-managed imagery, from the Tokyo-based Amana Group. As a result of the acquisition, Getty will distribute Photonica images, as well as images from Iconica, Photonica's sister company.

“Our relationship with Amana with significantly accelerate our already-successful penetration of Japan, the world's second-largest market for imagery, and further strengthen gettyimages.com's global role”?for visual communicators,” says Jonathan Klein, Getty's CEO.

This is the first phase in a broader distribution relationship between it and Amana. Getty plans to enter into arrangements with Amana to represent Amana's locally relevant content in Japan; and, Amana will offer some of the major Getty Image collections to its Japanese customers. In addition, Getty plans to represent and distribute Amana's imagery to the international market outside of Japan, and the companies plan to co-produce high-quality, wholly owned creative photography in Japan and elsewhere.

Photonica was founded more than 20 years ago in Japan by photographer Hironobu Shindo, who is now group chairman. Iconica was launched in 2003. Photonica and Iconica are both based in New York.

Getty acquired the London-based Digital Vision in May of this year. (Getty Images: www.gettyimages.com, Photonica: www.photonica.com, Iconica, www.iconica.com)