Shutterstock’s gross revenue in 2019 was
$648,500,000. Total royalties paid out to all contributors in 2019 was about
$181,730,000.
Total Shutterstock stock owned by Jon Oringer is worth over $650,000,000. Total shares outstanding are 35,630,000 and Oringer owns 45% of them or 16,033,500 shares. The current value of a share is $41.23. Thus, Oringer’s total annual income from dividends alone is about
$10,902,780.
Just 2 days after Shutterstock announced its recent cut in creator royalty rates they told shareholders they would be receiving a
$0.17 per share dividend. Currently Shutterstock is paying dividends of $0.17 per-quarter or
$0.68 per-year. This comes to
$24,228,400 to all shareholders.
My question is, What are shareholders doing to generate revenue for Shutterstock? Don’t they receive enough by owning the shares and being able to sell them at any time? If, instead of dividends, that money was used to pay image creators an additional share of the gross revenue received those who are producing the product being licensed would receive a
13% raise is royalties.
Sidelight
If the above strikes you as a problem that needs a solution you might want to listen to this nine minute
Economist story concerning the difference between the stock market and what drives the real economy.