Getty Images, the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content, announced today that it has acquired Ireland-based Pixel Images Holdings Limited, the parent company of Stockbyte and Stockdisc for $135 million in cash.

Stockbyte brings to Getty Images a broad range of versatile, wholly-owned content with global appeal. The content is licensed under Stockbyte and Stockdisc brands through a worldwide network of distributors, the largest being Getty Images. Most of the content is already available on the site.

“Worldwide demand for imagery continues to grow as our customers increasingly explore new, image-rich communication platforms as a means to break through the clutter,” said Jonathan Klein, Getty Images’ co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The acquisition is in line with our strategy of acquiring and producing increased amounts of relevant wholly-owned imagery. The addition of the Stockbyte content will further enhance our ability to offer customers new licensing options, and will further extend our reach into the broadband-enabled and wireless platforms which are fast becoming a significant component of our customers’ communications mix.”

Getty Images continues to expand its lead in offering customers unmatched access to imagery at all prices in all markets and on all platforms. Over the last twelve months, Getty Images has significantly increased both the quality and amount of imagery available to customers.

Getty Images has also added imagery through a number of key acquisitions which include one of the highest-quality rights managed collections (Photonica), a leader in creative royalty free imagery (Digital Vision), a leading collection of Hispanic content (Medio Images) and a leader in the value segment (iStockphoto).