On 12 October 2026, Getty Images, the Seattle-based photo agency, signed a restructuring support agreement with its main lenders and two backers: members of the Getty family and affiliates of Koch Equity Development (KED), the investment arm of Koch Inc. The family and KED committed up to $533 million of new equity. When the restructuring is done, the company says, they will own 100% of the reorganised company, which will be private again.
The route is a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy for certain US companies in the group. The company says the plan would leave holders of its common stock not “receiving or retaining any property” for their shares. For families, this is an unusual way to take a company private: not by paying shareholders a premium, but through a court process in which they stand last in line.
How Getty got here
Mark Getty, a grandson of the oil magnate J. Paul Getty, founded the company in London in 1995 with Jonathan Klein. It listed on the stock market in the 1990s and was taken private by the buyout firm Hellman & Friedman in 2008. Carlyle bought control in 2012 in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. In 2018 the Getty family bought a controlling interest back from Carlyle, and KED made a $500 million non-controlling preferred equity investment. In July 2022 Getty returned to the New York Stock Exchange by merging with a SPAC (a listed shell company), CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II.
The trouble came from debt and a failed deal. In January 2025 Getty agreed to combine with Shutterstock in a $3.7 billion deal. US regulators cleared it, but Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority wanted Shutterstock’s editorial business sold first. Getty walked away in July 2026. Chief executive Craig Peters put the deal’s cost at more than $100 million, Billionaires.Africa reported.
Total debt was about $2.1 billion at 30 June, according to the company’s lender presentation. In September Getty did not pay interest due on its unsecured notes, S&P Global cut its rating to CCC, and the New York Stock Exchange began delisting the shares, which now trade over the counter, The Seattle Times reported. They had fallen from more than $33 in 2022 to about two cents. The company lost $206.1 million in 2025, AFP reported.
What a prepackaged Chapter 11 is
Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code lets a company keep operating while it reorganises its debts under a court’s supervision. Management normally stays in charge as a “debtor in possession”. A prepackaged case adds one twist: negotiate first, file second.
- Agree the deal. The company and its main creditors sign a restructuring support agreement that sets out who gets what.
- Collect the votes. Creditors vote before the filing. Under US rules, a class of creditors accepts a plan when holders of at least two-thirds of the amount and more than half of the number of claims that vote say yes.
- File and confirm. The company files with the votes in hand and asks the judge to confirm the plan, usually far faster than in a contested case.
- Borrow to bridge. With court approval, the company can borrow new money that ranks ahead of older unsecured debts. This is called debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing.
Getty says the creditors it needs have committed to vote yes: holders of 83.5% of its unsecured bonds, about 89% of its secured bonds and term loans, and all of its revolving credit lenders. Unsecured bondholders agreed to retire $270 million of notes; secured lenders agreed to lower interest and longer maturities. KED will provide up to $143 million to fund the business during the case, which the published agreement treats as a DIP facility.
The company planned to ask for votes “in the coming days”, file “in the coming weeks” and finish by the end of 2026. The agreement names the Delaware bankruptcy court, unless the parties agree otherwise. As of 14 October 2026, we found no report of a filing.
How a family ends up with 100% without a takeover premium
In a normal take-private, a buyer offers public shareholders a price, usually above the market, and needs enough of them to accept. Here there is no offer. In a US bankruptcy, shareholders stand last, behind lenders and bondholders. When creditors are not repaid in full, old shares are usually cancelled, and new shares go to whoever provides the money that makes the plan work, with the creditors’ support. Shareholders can object, but the judge, not a shareholder vote, decides whether the plan goes ahead.
That is how the family and KED can end up owning everything. The $533 million is not paid to anyone selling shares; it goes into the company. Bloomberg, as reported by Billionaires.Africa, said about $433 million would be cash and about $100 million would be Koch-held debt turned into shares. The company has not said how ownership will be split between the family and KED. Like the Westons with Fairfax at Boots, the family has a partner.
A fair caveat
The family is not getting something for nothing: it is putting new money into a loss-making, heavily indebted business, and creditors are making concessions too. The plan still needs a court to confirm it, and details can change. Most of the share price fall happened in the market before this deal, but for anyone still holding the shares, the loss is real.
Five lessons to take away
- Family money can be the owner of last resort. When markets step back, a patient family with a partner can decide who owns a company.
- Debt decides who keeps control. A heavy debt load, not the photo archive, is what put ownership in play.
- Failed deals have a cost. Getty spent a year and a half, and by its chief executive’s account more than $100 million, on a merger that never closed.
- In bankruptcy, shareholders stand last. A minority stake in an indebted company can go to zero even when the business survives.
- A listing is not a one-way door. Getty has been public, private, public again, and is going private once more.
Questions to bring to your advisors
If we hold shares or bonds in a family-controlled company with heavy debt, where do we stand if it restructures? If we are the family, what would it cost us, in money and reputation, to keep control through a court process rather than a takeover? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.