Jupitermedia Buys PictureArts in $63.2 Million Deal

0

PictureArts Corp., a South Pasadena picture library and vendor, is being acquired by Jupermedia Corp. in a $63.2 million deal expected to close later this year.


PictureArts, founded in 1984, has a library of thousands of pictures of food, beverages, plants and other stylized concept images, that will be added to the millions of images held by Jupitermedia’s JupiterImages unit.


Few changes are expected at closely held PictureArts, which has 75 employees, said Mondy Beller, vice president of marketing and communications for PictureArts. “At this point, we’re being told and we’re pretty confident that we’re going to stay much as we were,” she said.


The company’s co-founder, Jeffrey Burke, is expected to become executive vice president of product strategy for Jupitermedia’s growing images division. The other co-founder, Lorraine Triolo, also is expected to remain in the merged company in an executive capacity.


PictureArts has contracts with about 1,000 photographers worldwide to take photos for advertisers, designers, publishers and other communications professionals. Some of the photos are rights-managed, which means the purchaser has exclusive use of them for a defined period of time.


The PictureArts purchase will greatly enlarge Jupitermedia’s collection of rights-managed images, which command higher prices than images that are not exclusively licensed, Jupitermedia executives told Bloomberg News.


Jupitermedia has purchased seven smaller companies since June 2003, nearly all of them image vendors. Jupitermedia shares rose 69 cents or 4.03 percent in trading Friday to $17.82.

No posts to display