What Lawsuit? Here are earnings!! :
Related QuotesGETY
19
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delayed 20 mins - disclaimerTuesday February 9, 8:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images Reports E-Commerce Success In 1998
LONDON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (Nasdaq: GETY - news), the leading international provider of visual content, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 1998. Sales for the quarter increased by 96 percent over the fourth quarter of 1997 to $50.1 million and reported earnings before interest, taxes, exchange gains/losses, depreciation and amortization (''EBITDA'') increased by 191 percent to $10.6 million. Sales in 1998 increased by 84 percent to $185.1 million (1997: $100.8 million) and EBITDA increased by 83 percent to $35.4 million (1997: $19.3 million).
Electronic commerce sales, in the quarter, reached more than 15 percent of total sales. Digital sales (including CD-ROM sales) in the quarter were $18 million, representing 36 percent of total sales. Digital sales for the year were $59 million, representing 32 percent of total sales.
In the fourth quarter, Getty's largest brands, PhotoDisc and Tony Stone Images, performed well and showed particular strength in electronic commerce. The electronic commerce sales of PhotoDisc, acquired in February 1998, increased by 92 percent in the fourth quarter over the equivalent quarter of 1997 and e-commerce sales accounted for 47 percent of total sales in North America. Full electronic commerce for Tony Stone Images, launched in the fourth quarter, exceeded the company's expectations with 25 percent of sales on the web generated by new customers in the quarter.
''1998 has been our most successful year to date, both financially and strategically. We made rapid progress in all areas, in particular through the introduction of full e-commerce for our products,'' said Mark Getty, Chairman of Getty Images. ''We now have achieved our first objective: we are the largest provider in our industry through the successful implementation of our consolidation strategy. We are also well on the way to achieving our second major objective: electronic commerce enabling our products. We are also finalizing our plans for the next stage of our strategic development: providing a hub web site for our customers as a first step toward a complete desktop working environment for the global creative market,'' Getty added.
''We are delighted with our commercial success during 1998, particularly with the significant contribution to our record sales made by our e-commerce products,'' said Jonathan Klein, Getty's Chief Executive Officer. ''Our sales growth throughout the year reflects our ability, in our expanding industry, to offer our customers winning solutions. Improved operating efficiencies have led to improvements in our margins throughout the year. We aim to drive sales and internal efficiencies through providing more and better hassle-free web solutions and creating new web-based products and services,'' Klein added.
Financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 1998
-- Getty's reported sales increased by 96 percent to a record
$50.1 million in the fourth quarter of 1998.
-- In the fourth quarter, more than 15 percent of total sales were
e-commerce sales.
-- E-commerce sales at PhotoDisc increased by 92 percent over the fourth
quarter of 1997 and represented 37 percent of total sales for that
brand. In January 1999 PhotoDisc's e-commerce sales represented
40 percent of total sales. In the fourth quarter, new customers
accounted for 25 percent of e-commerce sales at Tony Stone Images.
-- Gross margin for the quarter improved to 72.5 percent from
63.8 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of 1997 and from
72.3 percent in the third quarter of 1998.
-- Selling, general and administrative expenses were $25.7 million,
representing 51.3 percent of sales, compared with 52.4 percent for the
third quarter of 1998.
-- EBITDA for the quarter increased by 191 percent to $10.6 million,
compared with $5.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1997.
-- The EBITDA margin improved to 21.2 percent, up from 19.9 percent in
the third quarter of 1998.
Financial results for the year ended December 31, 1998
-- Reported sales increased by 84 percent to $185 million for the year,
compared with $101 million in 1997.
-- Gross margin for the year improved to 71.5 percent from 62.8 percent
of sales in 1997.
-- EBITDA for the year increased by 83 percent to a record $35.4 million
compared with $19.3 million in 1997.
-- The EBITDA margin was 19.1 percent. The EBITDA margin of PhotoDisc
has improved by more than 10 percentage points over the prior year.
During the period, electronic commerce sales for PhotoDisc, as a
percentage of total sales, have grown from 19 percent to 35 percent.
Getty believes that it is possible for the company as a whole, over
the medium term, to reflect the margins achieved at PhotoDisc.
Operational highlights
-- Getty's biggest brand, Tony Stone Images, launched full e-commerce in
October 1998 and has exceeded the company's expectations. Over five
percent of Tony Stone Images' North American sales were generated
online by the end of December 1998 and, of these, 25 percent were new
customers. This initial success for Tony Stone Images continued into
January 1999 when e-commerce sales in North America represented over
10 percent of total sales. Sales on www.tonystone.com, in January
1999 alone, equaled total e-commerce sales for Tony Stone Images in
the whole of the fourth quarter of 1998. Getty believes that these
results validate the company's strategy to grow the market for imagery
significantly through electronic commerce.
-- It is Getty's view that the growth in e-commerce sales at
www.photodisc.com illustrates the willingness of the creative market
to purchase imagery online. PhotoDisc's e-commerce sales for the full
year increased by 156 percent, over 1997, to $20 million. In October
1998 alone, $2.3 million was generated on www.photodisc.com. Getty
has invested for future growth in this brand with the launch, this
month, of the new PhotoDisc web site. The new web site will contain
greater functionality and improvements in customer service, including
the addition of account self-maintenance and monitoring abilities.
-- Getty's Preview service, which allows customers to use in house
expertise in searching for imagery while utilizing the company's
online delivery of selections and orders, continues to prove popular
among Tony Stone Images' customers. Getty believes that the service
is effective at ensuring that specialist image requests can be met
digitally and that the service can help to alleviate customer deadline
pressure. In addition, Getty believes that the service provides an
excellent training ground for full e-commerce usage amongst all
customer sectors. Due to its success, the company has extended the
service to include its expansive historical collection, Hulton Getty.
-- During the year Getty's sports photography brand, Allsport, increased
its emphasis on the benefits of digital technology to customers. With
a customer base that includes most of the world's media, Allsport
maintains a strong commitment to product quality and speed of
delivery. Utilizing the latest in digital cameras, Allsport ensures
that time-sensitive and technically suitable imagery can be downloaded
from its web site within minutes of newsworthy sporting events.
Allsport sales growth in the year exceeded the company's expectations.
-- In the fourth quarter of 1998, Getty acquired Sporting Pix, a leading
sports picture agency based in Melbourne. Getty believes that the
acquisition helps to build the company's base in Australia ahead of
the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, especially as Allsport is the official
photographer of the International Olympic Committee and of the US
Olympic Committee. Sporting Pix adds another key office to Getty's
network of wholly owned outlets in 14 major markets and agents in 54
countries. The network supplements Getty's digital distribution
network via the Internet and provides the company with extensive
customer intelligence.
-- During 1999 Getty intends to extend its electronic commerce offering
to the company's customers. Encouraged by the rapid growth in digital
take-up and revenues on the company's existing web sites, during the
next twelve months Getty will invest in enhancing functionality and
valued added services. In addition, Getty will continue to e-commerce
enable relevant parts of the company's content in order to provide
imagery in a hassle-free web environment.
-- In the third quarter of 1999, Getty plans to enhance the separate
successes of existing web sites by providing the creative market with
a hub web site, with e-commerce capabilities, containing imagery from
some of its leading brands: Tony Stone Images, PhotoDisc, Allsport and
Hulton Getty. Getty believes that existing and new customers will be
eager to take advantage of this broad selection of high quality
imagery.
-- Integration of appropriate initiatives and divisions among brands was
a feature for Getty in 1998 and the company intends to continue this
strategy during the coming twelve months. Liaison and Hulton Getty
share offices and management in North America; Tony Stone Images has
extended its customer base to Liaison in 1998 and will provide the
same benefit to Energy Film Library in 1999; PhotoDisc built its
foothold in Australia through maximizing the opportunities provided by
Getty's expansion there for Allsport. Early indicators signal the
success for Getty's management and integration policy with strong
support for Liaison's Portraits catalog among Tony Stone Images'
customers as well as greatly improved margins at PhotoDisc.
Mosko |
