Pond5 is Now a Shutterstock Company + Shutterstock Has a New CEO

Big news in the stock video industry today! It was just announced that Shutterstock, one of the top stock photography companies, has acquired the video-first marketplace Pond5. 

The core intention of this acquisition is to build the world’s largest premium video and editorial content service, by integrating Pond5’s extensive royalty-free and editorial libraries into Shutterstock’s offers, including their workflow solutions for creatives. 

In additional news, Shutterstock informed the appointment of a new CEO Paul Hennessy, a long-term board member at the company. 

All the details of this news are below!

Shutterstock and Pond5 – Transaction Details

Per the press release, Shutterstock has acquired Pond5 for $210 million cash, turning it into a Shutterstock-fathered company, just like PremiumBeat for example. 

Through this strategic purchase, the companies hope to become the largest provider of premium stock video and editorial content in the world. 

The way this would happen is by integrating Pond5’s comprehensive collections of stock video (both royalty-free and editorial), stock music, and sound effects, into Shutterstock’s workflow services – which already count on Shutterstock’s massive royalty-free libraries for stock photos, stock video, and stock music. 

For example, customers from all over the world will now be able to access Pond5’s video clips in Shutterstock Studios –a content production platform for creatives–, and able to produce short or long-form content pieces with them. 

By going under the Shutterstock umbrella, Pond5 will now also be able to offer its network of contributors more selling opportunities, as their work will be exposed to Shutterstock’s worldwide buyer base. 

Pond5 – Why Is it The Chosen One

For us, it’s not a surprise that Shutterstock took interest in Pond5 when it comes to realizing its vision for a complete creative platform. 

After all, Pond5 has been a strong player in the stock video field almost since its launch over 16 years ago. Not only were they one of the first video-focused stock media agencies, but they also successfully grew to have over 30 million stock videos, 1.6 million music tracks, and 1.7 million sound effects assets. 

Equally valuable, they put a lot of effort into their editorial content offer, which thanks to partners like Reuters, PA Media, and British Movietone, is one very high-profile and complete service with new and archival content available. 

Finally, Pond5 now counts 115,000+ active contributors in 180 countries, who supply as many as 2.5 million new files to their platform every month. For more info, check our full Pond5 review.

These impressive metrics are right up Shutterstock’s alley, as the stock photo titan itself operates in very big numbers and is in constant expansion – see it for yourself in this Shutterstock statistics report. 

Shutterstock Has a New CEO: Paul Hennessy

Also announced today in separate news, Shutterstock has confirmed the appointment of former board member Paul Hennessy as the new Chief Executive Operator of the company, a position he will effectively take on July 1st, 2022. 

He will take it after Jon Oringer, the founder and former CEO of Shutterstock that is currently serving as Interim CEO. Oringer will then remain in his Chairman role, where he has worked closely with Hennessy as he has been a board member for seven years. 

Speaking of this new leadership, Jon Oringer described Hennessy as a data-drive, growth-focused leader with an inclination for disruption and innovation. A description that Hennessy himself seems to live up to, as he communicated his plans to turn Shutterstock into a scalable, full-service creative platform centered around excellent customer experience. His two decades of experience in digital marketplaces and global leadership should help him in his endeavor. 

What do you think about a Pond5 by Shutterstock? Let us know!