Live-Blogging Getty's Conference Call

4:15 p.m.
Just in: Getty Images reported a better-than-expected 4th quarter and revenues of $857.6 million for the full year. (The company's forecast had been $850 million.)

The good news/bad news from the company's press release: "Excluding the effects of changes in currency exchange rates, [fourth quarter] revenue grew 1.0 percent. Revenue growth over the prior year came from increasing licenses of editorial imagery, significant growth in micro payment revenue, and increased revenue from digital asset management and publicity distribution. This year over year growth was partially offset by lower revenue in the company's traditional creative stills business."

More below the jump...

4:20 p.m.

Getty spent $255 million acquiring other businesses in 2007, compared to $198 million in 2006. MediaVast/WireImage made up the bulk of the 2007 purchases at $202 million.

4:40 p.m.

From Getty's latest quarterly metrics spreadsheet... As expected, the percentage of Getty's revenue from "other RF," which includes micropayment site iStockphoto.com, keeps growing. In the fourth quarter of 2007, 36% of Getty's RF revenue came from "other RF." That figure was 20% in Q4 '06. Meanwhile, the  precentage of overall revenue from all RF is consistently around 38 percent.

5:03 p.m.

Conference call is underway.

5:11 p.m.

CEO Jonathan Klein cites a number of successes, including the well-received new Web site and "enthusiastic adoption of our revolutionary web-resolution product." He says the company is making process in its effort to stabilize its single-image stills business.

5:15 p.m.

Klein says average RM prices are down for three reasons. 1. Customers are buying fewer images for "print collateral, brochures and print advertising." Instead customers are spending that money on online products and paid search advertising. 2. Editorial RM sales are up, and those are less than commercial sales. 3. The $49 web-use sales are high enough to bring the average RM price down.

5:16 p.m.

Klein says RF revenues are up thanks to iStockphoto, which has been doing well. iStock video also showed "explosive growth."

5:19 p.m.

Klein: "Stabilizing our creative stills business has been and continues to be our number one priority.... There is no doubt in our mind that the much improved performance in the 4th quarter is evidence of the progress we are making." On the relaunch of gettyimages.com: "Soon after its launch we were not happy with its performance." But the problems have been fixed. "The site is now impacting revenue, but in a very positive way."

Klein has not addressed the reports that his company is for sale.

5:28 p.m.

Klein talks about integrating WireImage: "The business is now very profitable, which it was not at the time of the acquisition." Huh.

5:30 p.m.

No surprises here: "IStockphoto had a stellar year in 2007. We are expecting another great year in 2008." And: "I haven't spoken much about consumer and I don't plan to on this call."

5:43 p.m.

Klein refers to "strategic alternatives" but offers nothing more. "We have some challenges, but we have many more opportunities ahead of us and we are focused both on stabilizing the creative stills business and driving forward with new products and services that are driving significant growth." On to the Q and A!

5:44 p.m.

The first question, from a J.P. Morgan analyst, is about the Getty sale. Klein's answer: "The very first question is one that I am not at liberty to answer. I would stress that at no point has Getty Images talked about a sale. We have talked about strategic alternatives."

Well, that was useless.

6:02 p.m.

In another question, an analyst calls Klein out on his numbers. He notes that Getty did not experience organic growth from Q406 to Q407. He correctly points out the Klein is citing sequential growth (quarter to quarter) rather than year-over-year when he talks about how the company is doing so well. The question: "Can you help me understand that, why you're so optimistic?"

Klein's answers by citing a lot more sequential growth figures, showing that they're higher than the sequential growth figures from a year ago. (Follow that?) "We did many, many things in the second half of the year that had an impact," Klein says.

He seems slightly off guard when talking about how acquisitions effected the growth rate. "The PunchStock acquisition is extremely tiny and meaningless." Pause. "In terms of trends."

The analyst is clearly a diplomat: "I guess there's just a couple of different ways to look at it."

6:08 p.m.

Question: "How meaningful is the iStock price increase?"

Klein explains the price increases. "We are very strategic in changing pricing and we are very focused on adding better content..." He says iStock has seen no impact on volume after the price increase.

6:11 p.m.

The call has ended. No new products announced, silence on these "strategic alternatives," no news committed. Klein's sign off: "We will keep you posted on any and all developments."

Please do that.

Lastly, here's our recap on PDNOnline.com: Getty Reports Annual Revenue Of $858 Million