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CORBIS BUYS OUTLINE
July 29, 1998
Corbis has announced its acquisition of Outline Press, a
global photo agency specializing in high quality studio portraits of
celebrities, including film and television stars, sports figures, musicians,
dancers and CEOs. Outline supplies photographs to such top magazines as
Details, Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, GQ, Harper's Bazaar,
Interview, Mademoiselle, Mirabella, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Time, US
Magazine, Vanity Fair and Vogue, among others.
With this
agreement, Corbis becomes the world's leading provider of celebrity
photography while continuing to deliver on its strategy to become the first
company to offer creative professionals and consumers a fully-integrated
product spectrum of visual content and services.
Under terms of the agreement, Outline will operate as a division of
Corbis under the name Corbis Outline. The company will maintain its offices
in Los Angeles and New York City. Jim Roehrig, Outline's founder will
continue to oversee Corbis Outline operations as managing director with an
initial three year contract. Other financial terms of the deal were
not disclosed.
Outline has specialized in re-licensing celebrity portraits that were
originally produced on assignment for other media. Outline receives these
images from the photographer after the original use license expires. Jim
Roehrig says that today virtually none of these images are produced on
speculation as was common practice a decade or so ago.
The Edge division of the Outline/Edge corporation was not a part of this
acquisition, and will not be affected in any way. The Edge division was
established about six years ago. Edge specializes in getting
advertising assignments for a select group of photographers. In most cases
the client purchases all rights to the images produced. While operating out
of the same offices, the two companies function separately, and there is very
little crossover of the work, even though both specialize in celebrity
portraits.
There are no plans to integrate the files of LGI and Outline. LGI specialized in
celebrity event photography while Outline specializes in celebrity portraiture.
Corbis purchased LGI over a year ago. Jim DeNike of Corbis said, "The two are
complementary. We feel there is little overlap, but combined they create one of
the industry's leading celebrity offerings."
"We are delighted to join forces with Corbis," said Jim Roehrig, founder
of Outline. "Combining our creative team and leading photographers with
Corbis' technology and distribution network will greatly benefit our clients
and our artists."
Outline was founded in 1979 and has more than 50 employees.