Avpics Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I wonder how long the forum will be allowed to continue. Will PA be happy for our free speech to continue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 2 minutes ago, Richard Tadman said: I wouldn't expect any early changes while they delve into understanding what they have acquired. Assuming they have bought it to generate an income stream (as opposed to removing a competitor -which would be a somewhat costly option ) I'd expect a period of grace before they make any rash decisions. I think they already know what they have acquired. I agree with you that PA probably won't do anything in teh enar future. Nevertheless, they prefectly know WHY they acquired Alamy. Possibly: A) To expand their activites in the photo stock market (without changing Alamy's business model much) B ) To get rid of a competitor C) To generate an income stream by exploiting Alamy's portfolio (for example increasing PU and bulk discounts as much as they can) D) ??? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 1 minute ago, spacecadet said: It does if it doesn't want to carry debt, surely? Any serious company knows how to cope with debts, from my grocery store to Boeing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tadman Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 1 minute ago, riccarbi said: I think they already know what they have acquired. I agree with you that PA probably won't do anything in teh enar future. Nevertheless, they prefectly know WHY they acquired Alamy. Possibly: A) To expand their activites in the photo stock market (without changing Alamy's business model much) B ) To get rid of a competitor C) To generate an income stream by exploiting Alamy's portfolio (for example increasing PU and bulk discounts as much as they can) D) ??? I'm sure you are right but there is always a danger to attribute the worst of motives if you are the target company. I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic but ultimately the market will decide and that is seriously over-subscribed and rationalising the providers (including we contributors) cannot be discounted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 1 minute ago, riccarbi said: Any serious company knows how to cope with debts, from my grocery store to Boeing. I said debt, not debts. Perhaps you could look up the definitions. 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Tadman Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 8 minutes ago, Avpics said: I wonder how long the forum will be allowed to continue. Will PA be happy for our free speech to continue? If I was PA, I would consider this a valuable source of intelligence regarding contributors - at least short-term Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) I would expect that PA will want to use its new Alamy content to compete more actively in the general editoral market with Getty and Shutterstock. We will just have to see what happens. Edited February 11, 2020 by geogphotos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andremichel Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 This further illustrates that it is risky having all your eggs in one busket. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 one thing i found interesting is the announcement on Twitter was broadcasted faster by German based organisations. one would hope that this brings access to new markets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, spacecadet said: I said debt, not debts. Perhaps you could look up the definitions. As far as I know, in 2018, Alamy registered an operating profit of about £1.2M and paid dividends for £760K. So, they had plenty of room to devise a reasonable expansion strategy without great financial risks. Maybe the $2.3M Videoloft Ltd loan was a bit risky move, though. Nevertheless, there were no logical reasons to look for funding by upsetting contributors by cutting their fee percentage. Unless, they were in a hurry to increase the 2019 operating profit... Edited February 11, 2020 by riccarbi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) Yes we contributors have concerns but.....thinking about Alamy staff and hope that their jobs and future are secure. It must be unsettling for them. I am sure that we wish them all the best. Edited February 11, 2020 by geogphotos 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanDavidson Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 We (particularly news photographers) are all doomed.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shergar Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Wondering what will happen to the charitable donations ???? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 4 minutes ago, IanDavidson said: We (particularly news photographers) are all doomed.... Can we take photos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickboden Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Perhaps this P A Media Group is aquiring Alamy because they want to expand beyond News imagery. That would be my hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkK Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 It has been almost one year (March 2019) that they spontaneously culled Live News contributors. This gives some context to the acquisition. It can be assumed that the acquisition has been in the works for a year hence the lowering of the commission, culling of Live News Contributors, and the new star system. The question will be how each of those actions will come into play with the restructuring- will they drop all non-live news contributors? will they cull contributors based on their 'stars' rating? will they cull based on sales amount or number of sales? Like others have stated, when the commission was cut it was not done to fund international expansion but rather to get the books in order for the sale. It will be interesting to see what incremental changes will happen over the coming months. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 6 minutes ago, rickboden said: Perhaps this P A Media Group is aquiring Alamy because they want to expand beyond News imagery. That would be my hope. If you read what has been posted by Alamy/PA.. that’s exactly what they are saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homy Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I read that Alamy has only 100 000 customers worldwide?? No wonder we earn so little and they've been in trouble. I thought they had millions of customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riccarbi Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, rickboden said: Perhaps this P A Media Group is aquiring Alamy because they want to expand beyond News imagery. That would be my hope. I hope that, too. PA images is a relatevely small agency mostly (almost exclusively) focused on news, especially UK's; to acquire Alamy, which has a much larger and diverse collection, just to cover news or kill a competitor would make no sense, arguably. Yet, nobody here knows what PA's strategy about Alamy will be. That makes many of us quite scared, of course. Edited February 11, 2020 by riccarbi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Homy said: I read that Alamy has only 100 000 customers worldwide?? No wonder we earn so little and they've been in trouble. I thought they had millions of customers. 100000 seems a pretty big number for a b2b/non-retail business. Considering Alamy's turnover, that would only be $200/year/customer. Ford only has 12000 dealerships, effectively its customers. Edited February 11, 2020 by spacecadet 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreign Export Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 2 hours ago, Richard Tadman said: I think if I was PA Media and has just acquired a new business, I wouldn't be in any great rush to upset the contributors, so I wouldn't expect any early changes while they delve into understanding what they have acquired. Assuming they have bought it to generate an income stream (as opposed to removing a competitor -which would be a somewhat costly option ) I'd expect a period of grace before they make any rash decisions. There again, I know as much as anyone else - major players apart. This is what I expect to happen - and history tells us it usually does Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I think I'll probably get all my images changed to non exclusive and made rf, then list elsewhere. I'm not that good (hopefully just yet) that I can make money 'on my own' and just want to maximise income as much as possible. Sales are slow as hell for me here. Makes sense to broaden my possibilities with the inevitable change that will occur here. I'm not saying I think the acquisition will be negative (especially for someone like me who makes almost nothing here), but it seems like the smart move for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sooth Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 let's hope it's not a Unilever buys Breyers type situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Alamy reached critical mass some time ago, so I guess most of us realized that something like this had to happen eventually. I don't see any reason to pack my bags yet, especially since I don't really have anywhere to go. Hopefully, things will turn out for the best. Que sera, sera. 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 1 minute ago, John Mitchell said: Alamy reached critical mass some time ago, so I guess most of us realized that something like this had to happen eventually. I don't see any reason to pack my bags yet, especially since I don't really have anywhere to go. Hopefully, things will turn out for the best. Que sera, sera. Agreed John, Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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