Getty Images will acquire Shutterstock, creating a company worth nearly $4 billion. As rationale for the combined entity, LinkedIn news reports, “The merger will help them stave off the threats of artificial intelligence and cell phone cameras, both of which can be used to replace their stock imagery in advertising, media and content creation.”

The Shutterstock brand name is to disappear, with the new company named Getty Images Holdings, Inc.

Visual tech experts say we should expect to see a significant culling of the image content, “especially in the Istock collection, which is probably 90% duplicate of Shutterstock and one distributor for AP, Reuters, and AFP…” — Paul Melcher.