U.K. stock-image company Photoshot continues growth through acquisition, apparently undeterred by the fate of the last celestial body to travel that road. On Monday, the company founded by former investment banker Charles Taylor announced that it purchased its London neighbor, court and criminal news agency Photo News Service.
This is Photoshot’s third acquisition this year. In January, Taylor said the company was aiming to become a “pre-eminent supplier of imagery of the natural world” when Photoshot bought underwater photography library Oceans-Image. The London agency also purchased the 1.5-million-image nature and wildlife collection of New York-based Bruce Coleman USA last month.
October also marked a year since Photoshot opened a New York office, hiring Corbis sales veteran Kris Hook to run it. Former Getty Images sales executive Colin Finlay had joined the company in 2004; he now co-owns the business and co-manages the London operation as director of strategic development.
Photoshot maintains its own production, represents hundreds of photographers and distributes a number of its own and third-party brands. Its in-house collections, Photoshot Archive and Photoshot Creative, are augmented by a sizable travel, nature and wildlife offering that unites the aforementioned brands with the Natural History Photo Archives, Photos Horticultural, Woodfall Wild, World Illustrated and World Pictures. Photoshot supplements its own editorial imagery—which includes Talking Sport, UPPA news and the Starstock and Stay Still celebrity brands—with syndicated content from Newscom, entertainment agency Elevation and other partners.
According to Photoshot, the newly acquired content of Photo News Service is a perfect fit with the UPPA newsdesk. The daily operations of the two brands will be managed in tandem by Photoshot’s London office, with Photo News Service images supplied as part of the UPPA daily news feed.