Business News

Getty Images Reports Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2008

Friday 02. May 2008 - Getty Images, Inc. (NYSE:GYI), the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, today reported results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Revenue increased 9.7 percent to $233.2 million from $212.7 million in the first quarter of 2007. On a currency neutral basis, growth in the first quarter was 4.2 percent. This increase came mainly from increasing licenses of editorial and micropayment imagery. This increase was partially offset by lower revenues in the company’s traditional creative stills business when compared to the prior year. Sequentially, the traditional creative stills business achieved growth of about 1% over the fourth quarter of 2007 on a reported basis and was flat on a currency neutral basis.

As a percentage of revenue, cost of revenue was 28.6 percent, compared to 25.8 percent in the prior year. This increase was due to changes in the composition of the company’s royalty-free business, mainly increases in licenses of micropayment imagery that bears higher costs of revenue, as well as the impact of growth in editorial imagery revenue, primarily due to the acquisition of MediaVast in 2007.

Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) totaled $96.5 million or 41.4 percent of revenue for the first quarter of 2008, compared to $81.4 million or 38.3 percent of revenue in the first quarter of 2007. Costs associated with the potential merger totaled approximately $5.3 million during the first quarter of 2008. Excluding these costs, SG&A was $91.1 million or 39.1 percent of revenue. The remaining increase over the prior year is attributable mainly to acquisitions made since that time, investments made by the company in areas of the business that we expect to drive future revenue growth and the negative impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates. In the first quarter of 2007, SG&A included non-recurring costs of approximately $4.2 million.

Income from operations was $44.7 million or 19.2 percent of revenue in the first quarter of 2008 compared to $55.7 million or 26.2 percent of revenue in the first quarter of 2007.

Net income for the first quarter of 2008 was $23.9 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.40, compared to $38.0 million and $0.63, respectively, for the first quarter of 2007. The costs noted above relating to the potential merger had a $0.06 per diluted share negative impact on the current quarter. The effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2008 was 45.5 percent compared to 34.2 percent for the first quarter of the prior year. The effective tax rate for the current quarter was impacted primarily by lower profit in low tax jurisdictions and to a lesser extent the non-deductibility of costs related to the potential merger. Other non-operating expenses increased in the first quarter of 2008 as a result of foreign exchange losses, primarily related to the weakening of the US dollar against the euro and the impact of this currency movement on the revaluation of certain assets and liabilities.

Total cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments were $336.5 million at March 31, 2008, compared to $364.5 million at December 31, 2007. The decline is due to the repayment of $80.0 million of borrowings under our senior credit facility during the quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities during the first quarter of 2008 was $62.3 million.

As previously disclosed, the company is required to maintain certain financial results on a trailing four quarter basis as one condition of the closing of the merger. The financial results reported herein exceed that condition for the trailing four quarters. The company expects the transaction to close during the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2008.