Getty Images Just Filed for Bankruptcy. The Family Wins.

Описание: In 1973, kidnappers in Rome cut off the ear of J. Paul Getty's grandson. Twenty years later, the boy's younger brother, Mark Getty, co-founded the company that would become Getty Images. On October 21, 2026, Getty Images filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Under the plan, the Getty family and Koch end up owning all of it, and every public share is cancelled.

This is the story of how the world's best-known photo agency was built out of buyouts and borrowed money, went back to the stock market at the top of the SPAC boom, lost a merger, a warrant fight and most of an AI court case, and ended up back in the hands of the family that started it.

Update, October 23, 2026: Getty Images filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 case in Delaware on October 21 (lead case no. 26-11643, Judge J. Kate Stickles). At the first-day hearing on October 22, the judge gave interim approval for Getty to borrow 85 million dollars of the up to 143 million dollar Koch financing; the interim order was signed on October 23. The rest still needs final court approval. The family and Koch Equity Development have committed about 533 million dollars in equity, existing shares are to be cancelled, and the company expects to leave bankruptcy as a private company by the end of the year. GETY closed at about 0.02 dollars on October 20.

Chapters
0:00 The photos for sale
0:18 Chapter 1: The oil money
2:02 Chapter 2: Two men in London
2:32 Chapter 3: Buying the archive
3:31 Chapter 4: The first crack
4:21 Chapter 5: Private equity
5:45 Chapter 6: Back to the market
6:52 Chapter 7: The meme day
8:04 Chapter 8: The machines
9:39 Chapter 9: The merger
11:20 Chapter 10: The slide
12:24 Chapter 11: The family takes it back
14:01 Update: the filing
15:00 Chapter 12: What was lost

Sources
Getty Images release, Oct 21, 2026 (GlobeNewswire): https://www.globenewswire.com/news-re...
Getty Images Form 8-K, Oct 21, 2026 (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...
Reuters via U.S. News, Oct 21, 2026: https://money.usnews.com/investing/ne...
Law360, Oct 22, 2026, interim DIP approval: https://www.law360.com/articles/25415...
Case docket (interim DIP order, Dkt. 124, signed Oct 23): https://www.bkalerts.com/recent-bankr...
Case information (Kroll): https://restructuring.ra.kroll.com/Ge...
GETY price history: https://stockanalysis.com/quote/otc/G...

Photo and footage credits
Creative Commons images and video via Wikimedia Commons, by licence and author:
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CC BY 3.0: Vlad Pluzhnikov
CC BY 4.0: Jakub Hałun, Wehrstossgewehr, Los Angeles Daily News
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CC BY-SA 2.5: Tim Kiser
CC BY-SA 3.0: Wt90401, Motorpferd, Diliff, Kehvan, LPLT, Americasroof, Asy arch at English Wikipedia, Cacophony, aismallard
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Public domain and CC0 material from the U.S. National Archives (Documerica), the Library of Congress, and Wikimedia Commons.
Archival footage: AP Archive. Web pages, court filings and SEC documents are shown for news reporting and commentary.
Music: Boardroom Ghosts original theme