The Times/ delivers the background numbers of the recent Corbis/Zefa deal ("Corbis snaps up third-largest image catalogue"):
The deal, estimated at €56 million (£39 million), shores up Corbis’s status as the secondbiggest photograph owner, amid speculation that Mr Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is poised to announce a flotation of the company with a valuation that could exceed $1 billion (£530.7 million).
Annual sales at Corbis, which owns more than 70 million images, will rise above $200 million following the acquisition of Zefa. The German catalogue, which is the last major independent image library in the world, has sales of about €32.5 million.
Getty Images ... The company, which is about 20 per cent owned by the Getty Trust, is worth $4 billion — implying a valuation for Corbis of between a third and a half of Getty Images.
Zefa was jointly owned by Erwin Fey, 3i, the UK venture capital group, and its management. Herr Fey will take about €28 million for his 51 per cent stake, while 3i has more than trebled its initial investment of about €8 million, which it made in 1998.
€28Million for Fey?? You would not believe how many employees of Zefa got fired for this deal. Lame management by Fey has resulted for many people to fall into unemployment and now he gets away with everything.
It's actually quite a miracle that a man with his background, had his way for so long, making one stupid decision after another and still was in the position to decide everything on his own, without listening to anyone else. Fey was the law, within Zefa.
Any opposition ment unemployment. Some sort of dictatorship that brings back memories from decades ago.
Goodday!
Lenny
Posted by: Lenny Burtner | Friday, March 11, 2005 at 10:50 AM