Excited about billion dollar patent sales? How about a copyright valuation at $3.3 billion? That is what the Carlyle Group is paying to buy Getty Image. And just what are they buying? As the AP story puts it, Getty Images "creates and distributes still images, video and multimedia products for customers to use in brochures, websites and other outlets." In other words, copyrights.
Interestingly, this is not a pure IP play, however. Getty is not just a holding company of images. They are an operating company that Reuters report on the deal noted that Getty "for the first time shot images at the Summer Olympic Games in London in 3-D and 360-degree formats using robotic cameras" and have "adapted to a shift in the media industry to online from print."
So that $3.3 billion is based not just for the existing portfolio but on the ability of the company to continue to update and rejuvenate the portfolio and continue to keep it relevant to today's market. That is something that analysts of patent portfolios should keep in mind as well.
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