Want to be part owner of Blend Images, LLC, one of the leading stock-photo production operations in the world? Jack Hollingsworth, one of the two concept originators of Blend, is asking $250,000 for his shares in the company.
Long one of the world’s leading royalty free photographers, Jack is now moving in a completely different career direction and looking to capitalize his new online enterprise. He is migrating his business from photographer to publisher, production to education, stills to multimedia, word-of-mouth to word-of-mouse, and from stock-only income to a wide range of products and services—including photo tours, international shootouts, Webinars, blogs, e-books and consulting—geared to the new connected generation of customers.
Blend has 23 owners and is one of the fastest growing, niche, pro-photographer, multi-cultural stock agencies in the business today. The company was founded in 2004 by owner-photographers and currently operates with a 9-person staff from offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. It is managed by industry veterans and has over 75,000 tightly edited, ethnically diverse images in its collection. The imagery is represented by all major agencies and distributors around the world, in addition to being available through blendimages.com.
In 2008, Blend had revenues of $6.5 million. Photographer-owners receive 100% of the net revenue earned, less a pro-rata share of operating expenses. All profits are normally re-invested. Thus, in theory, there is no profit to be distributed at the end of each year.
Consequently, someone who buys Hollingsworth’s shares should not expect to receive anything for his investment until the entire business is sold and all 23 owners cash out. There are no current plans to sell the company, as members believe there is still plenty of opportunity to grow the business. One of the difficulties that will arise when it comes time to sell will be the ownership of images in the collection. A future buyer might agree to continue to pay the 23 current owners a small royalty (say 20% or 30%) of future sales, if it were necessary to get control of the business.
Thus, since Jack owns 4.72% of Blend Images, a future buyer would need to pay at least $5,296,610 for the assets if the purchaser of Hollingsworth’s shares were to recover his $250,000 investment.
Those interested in learning more about this opportunity should pbagnpg Ubyyvatfjbegu to receive a one-page backgrounder. Qualified buyers will receive additional due diligence documentation.
Jack said, “I’m offering up my shares in Blend with mixed emotions. I love Blend. Why wouldn’t I? I helped start it. It is one of the best niche pro-photographer agencies in the business today. And it’s growing. Owners, management team and contributors are all a fantastic community of creative collaborators.”