Getty Images up for sale: Report

WASHINGTON: Getty Images, the world's biggest supplier of photographs and video material, is for sale and could go for more than 1.5 billion dollars, The New York Times reported Monday.   

Citing unnamed sources briefed on the situation, the newspaper said the firm had hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise on the transaction.    

When asked about the report, a Getty spokesman in London said: "We do not comment on rumours".   

Potential buyers include private equity firms such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and others, the report said.   
Final bids are due by the end of January, but a sale is not assured because the tighter high-yield debt market has made it harder to finance such deals, the paper noted.   

Getty Images, based in Seattle, was founded in 1995 and has grown through a series of acquisitions into a major picture distributor.   

Its main clients include advertising agencies and media companies including The New York Times. Getty is a partner of Agence France-Presse in the distribution and production of photos in Britain, France and the United States.   

It has also branched out into video footage for use in television and  Internet programming.