Getty Images Sold for $2.4B

Digital photograph and online media powerhouse Getty Images today announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $2.4 billion. The deal has been approved by the Getty Images board of directors but still requires approval form the company’s stockholders.

Getty Images in January hired Goldman Sachs Group to explore the company’s financial options. As part of the deal—which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008—Hellman & Friedman will assume $305 million of Getty’s debt.

According to Getty Images co-founder and CEO Jonathan Klein, the company’s board of directors “thoroughly evaluated” the company’s strategic alternatives and determined that the deal with Hellman & Friedman is in the best interest of stockholders because “it provides them with superior and certain value.”

Getty Investments and company co-founder and chairman Mark Getty, who collectively hold about 15 percent of Getty Images shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction, according to the company.

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