Getty Images has completed the full acquisition of HAAP Media, the Hungarian company that retained partial ownership of Stock.xchng and StockXpert after Getty’s acquisition of Jupiterimages.
Free stock-image Web site Stock.xchng and its microstock brother StockXpert were established nine years ago by HAAP Media founders Andras Pfaff and Peter Hamza—a fact clearly evident in the very similar feel of the overall design and interface functionality of the two sites. Jupiterimages had made a 49.7% equity investment in HAAP in January 2006 and raised it to a controlling 90% by the end of that year.
When Getty purchased Jupiterimages in February, the deal included Stock.xchng and StockXpert. Getty has since relaunched Stock.xchng to up-sell iStockphoto content via banner and text ads on every Stock.xchng page. While Getty has also made a number of changes to other properties it acquired as part of the Jupiter deal, there has been no news—and no comment—on the company’s plans for the larger microstock asset.
Speculation among microstock contributors is rampant, which is not surprising given the top-six status of StockXpert in the micro space. All that is certain for the moment is that the Web site is still operational, paying contributor commissions and accepting new images. Pfaff and Hamza’s remaining stake in the business may have contributed to the slow speed of StockXpert’s integration into the Getty family—which may change as a result of this latest development.