Alamy - Annual report and accounts overdue

[IanDavidson 364]

Companies House website is now showing Alamy’s annual report and accounts as being overdue....

[geogphotos 2,449]

But only by a week or so. No big deal.

 

[M.Chapman 1,433]

Hopefully they will appear any day now.

• 2015 accounts appeared on 12 Oct 2016
• 2016 accounts appeared on 6 Oct 2017
• 2017 accounts appeared on 3 Oct 2018

I notice they've just posted a "Full Satisfaction of Charge" on 6 Oct 2019, but I've no idea what it means.

 

Mark

 

[IanDavidson 364]

3 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Hopefully they will appear any day now.

• 2015 accounts appeared on 12 Oct 2016
• 2016 accounts appeared on 6 Oct 2017
• 2017 accounts appeared on 3 Oct 2018

I notice they've just posted a "Full Satisfaction of Charge" on 6 Oct 2019, but I've no idea what it means.

 

Mark

 

A charge on a property can mean that it is being used as security on a loan or mortgages. I believe a full satisfaction means the property is now not being used as a security.  A little unusual to file on a Sunday.  

 

While Ian is right that the accounts are only a little overdue; these relate to December 2018 as a company has several months to submit their accounts.  I submitted my own company accounts a few years ago, the first filing, 24 hours late and was fined the standard £150...

[IanDavidson 364]

The Alamy accounts have been submitted and will be available on the companies House website “in five days”

[M.Chapman 1,433]

8 hours ago, IanDavidson said:

The Alamy accounts have been submitted and will be available on the companies House website “in five days”

 

Companies House website link is here.

 

Mark

[David Pimborough 174]

22 hours ago, IanDavidson said:

The Alamy accounts have been submitted and will be available on the companies House website “in five days”

 

and are now avaialble

 

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03807789/filing-history

[geogphotos 2,449]

What can you say - turnover fairly flat, large increases in payments to directors.

 

That's business and its their business.

[Travelshots 116]

I am interested in an explanation about the 2,3 Million loan that has been written off .  When was the loan agreed and how much of it has been repaid?  I assume the loan was made by Alamy to its subsidiary VIdeoloft who cannot repay it so has it been written off as a bad debt.?   Is this is why the headline profit is showing loss.? It states earlier that Videoloft has solid financial performance and paid dividends of £782,611. 

[M.Chapman 1,433]

41 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

What can you say - turnover fairly flat, large increases in payments to directors.

 

Increase in dividends without adequate justification seems to be in the DNA too?

 

Mark

Edited October 11, 2019 by M.Chapman

[Joseph Clemson 979]

12 minutes ago, Travelshots said:

I am interested in an explanation about the 2,3 Million loan that has been written off .  When was the loan agreed and how much of it has been repaid?  I assume the loan was made by Alamy to its subsidiary VIdeoloft who cannot repay it so has it been written off as a bad debt.?   Is this is why the headline profit is showing loss.? It states earlier that Videoloft has solid financial performance and paid dividends of £782,611. 

 

The accounts of Videoloft (formerly Manythings) show a loss in the year up to June 2018 of nearly £1 million (previous year a loss of £1.12 million).  I think the £782,612 dividends is from Alamy's accounts rather than VideoLoft. 

 

In any case I don't usually associate a loss of some £2 million pounds over 2 years as being a 'solid financial performance', but then again I'm a humble freelance photographer not a multi-million pound business owner or financier.

[Keith Douglas 488]

On 11/10/2019 at 09:42, Joseph Clemson said:

 

The accounts of Videoloft (formerly Manythings) show a loss in the year up to June 2018 of nearly £1 million (previous year a loss of £1.12 million).  I think the £782,612 dividends is from Alamy's accounts rather than VideoLoft. 

 

In any case I don't usually associate a loss of some £2 million pounds over 2 years as being a 'solid financial performance', but then again I'm a humble freelance photographer not a multi-million pound business owner or financier.

 

It seems to me that the Alamy Stock business on its own is doing OK despite the pressures that we know about. Of course, with a turnover (and cost of sales) that's relatively flat and with the number of images continuing to increase that isn't great news for contributors. But it could be worse.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens with Videoloft. Can it be turned round into a profitable business? How much more money will Alamy have to put into it, and are they prepared to do so?

[Joseph Clemson 979]

54 minutes ago, Keith Douglas said:

 

It seems to me that the Alamy Stock business on its own is doing OK despite the pressures that we know about. Of course, with a turnover (and cost of sales) that's relatively flat and with the number of images continuing to increase that isn't great news for contributors. But it could be worse.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens with Videoloft. Can it be turned round into a profitable business? How much more money will Alamy have to put into it, and are they prepared to do so?

 

I agree with your analysis on Alamy's main business. The Manything App gets very mixed reviews on the Google Play store so I can't see a clear way for Manythings to turn around of its own accord. If Alamy are going  to invest I'd much rather see such investment going into the mainstram Alamy business.

 

I was going to suggest they reconsider revitalising their video library and reopening it to new contributors, but I know that even well-established microstock video agencies are having a hard time in the rush to the bottom on prices through subscription models at the moment, and a big player has entered the non-editorial video stock market in the last two years or so. Still, Alamy has a unique niche in its richly varied still image content so perhaps it's not too late to offer something similar to the video market.

[geogphotos 2,449]

There is no sign that the additional revenue from the commission cut has been invested to help Alamy to transition from a tier 2 to a Tier 1.5 agency ie) nothing in the accounts to suggest that contributors have benefitted. 

 

For those that don't remember that was the main ( if vague) justification given. 

[Joseph Clemson 979]

17 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

There is no sign that the additional revenue from the commission cut has been invested to help Alamy to transition from a tier 2 to a Tier 1.5 agency ie) nothing in the accounts to suggest that contributors have benefitted. 

 

For those that don't remember that was the main ( if vague) justification given. 

 

In the interest of fairness to Alamy, the change in commission structure was announced in late 2018 and will only become apparent when they publish accounts for year ending December 2019. We will have to wait another year to see the impact of that 'innovation'. 

[geogphotos 2,449]

1 hour ago, Joseph Clemson said:

 

In the interest of fairness to Alamy, the change in commission structure was announced in late 2018 and will only become apparent when they publish accounts for year ending December 2019. We will have to wait another year to see the impact of that 'innovation'. 

 

 

Good point!

 

Though doesn't that mean that Alamy was able to make a large increase in payments to directors BEFORE making the reduction in our commission?

[Travelshots 116]

Alamy is diluting its revenue every day as more and more "photographers" submit images.It must cost a fortune to host all of those images on massive servers. Those who started with Alamy years ago have little enthusiasm to shoot more images as they are sold for stupid prices. There used to be so many good agencies ... now just a few,

[geogphotos 2,449]

 

 

Where are we?

Edited October 15, 2019 by geogphotos

[geogphotos 2,449]

Just a reminder from James West ( December 4, 2018) An update would be much appreciated before the anniversary of this - perhaps another video?

 

"2018 will be a high-water mark in revenue at Alamy. Normally this would be cause for celebration, but growth has flattened off this year. It's up only 2% on last year after a period of super high growth.

 

If things continue to be flat, which I think is the base case scenario, then revenues to our contributors will either stay flat or worse, start to fall.

 

So we're taking action now:

 

- Significantly reducing Alamy's operational costs (to put it in context - 2018 to 2019 will represent the biggest cost reduction we have ever attempted)

- Moving the royalty split to 60:40

- Big focus on international expansion, local language support from website to customer service to account management, re-engineering our core customer experience from search to checkout, upgrading our datacenters to latest technology, better content insights, new products, updated design and marketing etc.

 

If I thought we could continue to grow without moving the royalty split, I'd definitely rather do that. The choice is basically between continuing as we are, with revenue stalling and hoping for the best, or invest and get working on things that will move the needle.

 

Our larger competitors are currently out-investing us but they are not invincible. Shutterstock has reached market saturation and is vulnerable to a moody stock market that forces them to consider things that keep either the revenue or operating profit growing - if they have reached near saturation in revenue then they'll start to turn to their contributors for more operating profit. They are already paying out 30% on average and 20% to new contributors. Getty also average around 30% and are facing a $2.35 billion debt repayment."

 

I'd love to see Alamy get really invigorated, motivate us all and go after that market share that James portrayed as so vulnerable. I think he is right. So let's get after it!

 

Go Alamy etc  ( said in a typical British understated embarrassed way - and yes find JG and bring him back!)

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by geogphotos

[Marianne 771]

Worrying. 

[imageplotter 291]

12 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Just a reminder from James West ( December 4, 2018) An update would be much appreciated before the anniversary of this - perhaps another video?

 

"2018 will be a high-water mark in revenue at Alamy. Normally this would be cause for celebration, but growth has flattened off this year. It's up only 2% on last year after a period of super high growth.

 

If things continue to be flat, which I think is the base case scenario, then revenues to our contributors will either stay flat or worse, start to fall.

 

So we're taking action now:

 

- Significantly reducing Alamy's operational costs (to put it in context - 2018 to 2019 will represent the biggest cost reduction we have ever attempted)

- Moving the royalty split to 60:40

- Big focus on international expansion, local language support from website to customer service to account management, re-engineering our core customer experience from search to checkout, upgrading our datacenters to latest technology, better content insights, new products, updated design and marketing etc.

 

If I thought we could continue to grow without moving the royalty split, I'd definitely rather do that. The choice is basically between continuing as we are, with revenue stalling and hoping for the best, or invest and get working on things that will move the needle.

 

Our larger competitors are currently out-investing us but they are not invincible. Shutterstock has reached market saturation and is vulnerable to a moody stock market that forces them to consider things that keep either the revenue or operating profit growing - if they have reached near saturation in revenue then they'll start to turn to their contributors for more operating profit. They are already paying out 30% on average and 20% to new contributors. Getty also average around 30% and are facing a $2.35 billion debt repayment."

 

I'd love to see Alamy get really invigorated, motivate us all and go after that market share that James portrayed as so vulnerable. I think he is right. So let's get after it!

 

Go Alamy etc  ( said in a typical British understated embarrassed way - and yes find JG and bring him back!)

 

 

 

 

Ah, yes. Go Alamy. And to motivate us all, we'll give our directors a lovely massive pay rise, and you a lovely little cut in rates.  

[geogphotos 2,449]

29 minutes ago, imageplotter said:

 

Ah, yes. Go Alamy. And to motivate us all, we'll give our directors a lovely massive pay rise, and you a lovely little cut in rates.  

 

 

So now we can expect our promised rewards? That seems reasonable.

 

Motivated directors well remunerated, competitors struggling, turnover flat-lining, commission cut to fund innovation and investment.

 

2019 should be the year to watch according to the plan outlined by James West.

 

Go Alamy! Share the joy.

 

Seriously it is time for some glitter and some excitement - stock, including Alamy, seems to be sleep walking downwards these days - all a bit stagnant. Where is the buzz?

Edited October 16, 2019 by geogphotos

[BobD 568]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

So now we can expect our promised rewards? That seems reasonable.

 

Motivated directors well remunerated, competitors struggling, turnover flat-lining, commission cut to fund innovation and investment.

 

2019 should be the year to watch according to the plan outlined by James West.

 

Go Alamy! Share the joy.

 

Seriously it is time for some glitter and some excitement - stock, including Alamy, seems to be sleep walking downwards these days - all a bit stagnant. Where is the buzz?

 

I'm afraid I am a little more cynical than you Ian.

I remember the promised benefits to contributors when we took a cut in commission to open the American office. I don't think that materialised for many contributors. 

Since the last commission cut I have seen relatively flat sales but at way lower prices. Last month my average gross sale was $8, the lowest ever. It still seems to me that far from using the added revenue for investment, Alamy are using it for higher dividends and to cut prices even further.

[imageplotter 291]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

So now we can expect our promised rewards? That seems reasonable.

 

Motivated directors well remunerated, competitors struggling, turnover flat-lining, commission cut to fund innovation and investment.

 

2019 should be the year to watch according to the plan outlined by James West.

 

Go Alamy! Share the joy.

 

Seriously it is time for some glitter and some excitement - stock, including Alamy, seems to be sleep walking downwards these days - all a bit stagnant. Where is the buzz?

 My capacity for 'sharing the joy' is very limited when my bottom line is hit. Strange, that.

[Avpics 1,240]

7 hours ago, geogphotos said:

......commission cut to fund innovation and investment.

Database hasn't updated again, so another day's potential sales lost on new images. Start with the basics perhaps would be an idea. Happy to accept a huge bonus for putting forward that idea 🙂