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RANDOM THOUGHTS 20
July 3, 2000
eMotion Secures $34 Million In Funding
eMotion Inc. has raised $34 million in mezzanine funding. Chartwell Capital
Management and GE Capital led the round, with additional funding from National
Geographic, EMC, Enron, Sun Microsystems, Saudi International Bank and Veritas
Software.
eMotion was formed by the Jan. 20 merger of Picture Network International Ltd.
(PNI) and California-based Cinebase Software Inc. PNI operates
PictureQuest.com which licenses rights to rights protected and royalty-free
photography on behalf of a number of agency suppliers. Cinebase provided
digital-asset-management software and services to the entertainment,
government, corporate and advertising markets.
eMotion provides software and online services for the management of content
such as digitized video and audio, image photography and animation for the
broadband, advertising, Global 1000, broadcast and U.S. government markets.
The financing will support further development and integration of eMotion's
software products as well as to grow its existing application service provider
(ASP) offerings and aid in the company's international expansion.
Digital media management requires strong partnerships with platform technology
providers, storage vendors, broadband infrastructure providers, distribution
companies and others -- which is apparently why investors in this round
included EMC, Sun Microsystems, Enron and Veritas.
Previous eMotion investors, including Eastman Kodak, Psilos Group, East-West
Capital, Adelson Partners, Wasserstein-Perrella, Constellation Ventures (a Bear
Stearns Fund) and Young and Rubicam.
The digital media management market will expand from $300 million in 1999 to
$2.2 billion in 2003, Diana Murphy, Chartwell Capital managing director, said
in the statement.
Getty New Offices
Quadrant Corp. has begun construction of two buildings for Getty Images Inc. at
the Quadrant Lake Union Center in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. Online
imagery marketer Getty will occupy the building, totaling 176,000 square feet,
by September. With approximately 300 employees, the building will serve as its
world headquarters. Getty already occupies 79,000 square feet in another
building in the complex.
Boston Globe Freelancers Update
A lot of new bylines may start appearing under stories and pictures in the
Boston Globe after July 1st.
On June 26th Massachusetts Superior Court Justice Carol Ball said, "The
plaintiffs may ultimately have a remedy at law but the issuance of emergency
injunctive relief would be inappropriate."
Freelance writers, photographers and illustrators filed suit against the Globe
on June 12th to stop them from requiring that any freelancer who chooses to
work for them after July 1st must sign agreements that allows the Globe
unlimited future rights to use stories and photos freelancers have produced
for them in the past.
A volunteer committee of freelancers who have worked for the Globe have been
contacting photographers throughout New England encouraging them not to sign
the contract. So far, everyone contacted has said that they will not sign the
current version of the contract.
Meanwhile the Globe claims that about 300 freelancers have already signed the
agreement. Who will blink first?
The freelancers are well organized. Can the Globe continue to produce the
images they need? If the Globe wins it will set a very bad precendent for
freelance photographers who want to work for newspapers.
Patrick Donehue Joins Corbis
Patrick Donehue has left Getty Images to join Corbis as VP of Commercial
Photography. He will be responsible for setting the strategic direction of
commercial photography, specifically responsible for editing and production
and the visual voice for Corbis' marketing products. He will work closely
with the Executive team and Artist Relations on matters involving photographer
contracts and the general working relationships of photographers with Corbis.
Getty Images Acquires IPL In Australia
Getty Images Australia has acquired International Photographic Library (IPL),
IPL Profile, IPL e-Pic and R.E.D. Image, which collectively is Australia's
largest stock photography agency.
IPL represents such brands as: VCG, Voller Ernst, Nonstock, Ibid, National
Geographic Image Collection, Stock Illustration Source and Zefa. The
acquisition grants Getty Images Australia the right to distribute images from
the stock libraries represented by IPL.
IPL's 28 person staff in Sydney and Melbourne have joined Getty Images
Australia, which also represents leading Getty Images-owned brands: Stone,
PhotoDisc and Allsport.
"We believe that the Internet will fundamentally shift the way media
professionals work and we are committed to helping content creators leverage
the full power of the web," said Franz Hoffmann, chairman of IPL.
Kobal Collection and Art Archive Launch Site
The Kobal Collection and Art Archive have announced the launching of an on-line
research service called The Picture Desk.
Art Resource To Represent Art Works From French Museums
Art Resource has announced an agreement with the Reunion des Musees Nationaux
(RMN), of France. to be the exclusive North American representative for the
rights to reproduce works of art that are owned by all of the French national
and regional museums falling under the jurisdiction of RMN.
These include the Musee des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, the Musee du Louvre,
the Musee de l'Orangerie des Tuilleries, the Musee d'Orsay, and the Musee
Picasso, all in Paris, along with such other prominent institutions as the
Chateaux-musees de Versailles et de Trianon, the Musee-chateau de
Fontainebleau, and the Musee Matisse in Nice.
This marks the first time that the Museums of France have made a comprehensive
arrangement with an American entity. Art Resource is one of the oldest and
most comprehensive sources of fine-arts imagery in the world. All of Art
Resource's researchers have degrees in Art History, and have been chosen for
their pragmatism as well as their scholarship.
Speeding Request To Photographers At The Image Works
For years one of the problems with image request lists from stock agencies has
been that by the time the photographer learned about the request the particular
client who had initially shown an interest no longer had a need for the image.
The internet is changing all that.
The Image Works in Woodstock, New York has launched a service where they e-mail
requests to all their photographers on an as needed basis. Currently, this is
happening several times a week. Many of their photographers have the
capability to scan and e-mail or FTP an image to the Image Works. Thus, they
are finding that in some cases within a few hours of e-mailing the request a
photographer has gone out, shot the picture and delivered it to The Image
Works.
Once such an image arrives, TIW has the capability of keywording the image and
putting it up on-line for all their clients within twenty minutes. If it was a
special request from a particular client they FTP it to that client
immediately.
Many of the regular customers of The Image Works have breaking news
requirements.