In what might be the biggest photography collab since Kim K's wedding photos hit Instagram, Getty Images and Shutterstock just announced they're getting hitched in a $3.7B merger. And unlike my brother-in-law’s third wedding, this one's actually got people excited.

Getty's calling this a "merger of equals," which is corporate speak for "we're both getting absolutely wrecked by AI, so let's hold hands while we jump." Shutterstock shareholders get to pick their poison: $28.85 per share in cash, 13.67 shares of Getty stock, or a combo meal deal of $9.50 cash and 9.17 Getty shares. (Choose wisely, folks. And may the odds be ever in your favor.)

Craig Peters (Getty's CEO and soon-to-be head honcho of the combined company) dropped this absolutely riveting quote: "Today's announcement is exciting and transformational for our companies." Wow, Craig. Did you come up with that all by yourself?

The companies are promising to save $150-200M per year in "synergies." So, you’re gonna fire a bunch of people who take pictures of the same apple from slightly different angles… Got it. 

Let's address the 800-pound robot gorilla in the room: AI image generators. While Getty and Shutterstock have been busy watermarking pictures of businesspeople pointing at whiteboards, companies like Midjourney and DALL-E have been cranking out images that don’t look like they belong in a elementary health book.

Even Substack has a free AI image generator now. Sure, its quality is about as reliable as a 2002 webcam, but it’s free. That’s tough to beat.

Remember when Kroger and Albertsons tried to convince regulators they were competing with Walmart and got laughed out of the room? Yeah, Getty and Shutterstock might face the same uphill battle.

But, here’s the thing… With Trump expected to take over the regulatory wheel, these lovebirds might just make it to the altar. The Trump administration is expected to be more merger-friendly.

Wall Street's eating this deal up. Getty’s shot up 40% while Shutterstock jumped 20%.

If this merger goes through, we're looking at a stock photo behemoth worth $3.7B. The real question is: will this power couple be enough to fend off the AI invasion? Or is this more like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video joining forces right before Netflix stole their lunch money? 

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Stock.News has positions in Getty, Shutterstock, Instagram, Netflix, Albertsons, and Walmart mentioned in article.