Beate Chelette

Well, you know, Bill Gates has several businesses that he owns himself.

And Corbis, that actually was just sold about six weeks ago to a Chinese company.

That was one of the businesses he owned himself outright.

Yes, yes, yes.

The industry is crying.

Yes.

Exactly.

Which now effectively puts a monopoly in the hand of Getty Images, more or less, which is why the industry is very upset.

We had done, we were at about a million dollars in revenue.

It was just licensing revenue.

And what was so interesting about this business model, which is what your listeners might find interesting, is that you can build a business where you don't actually own any of the assets.

So we only had the rights to license the assets.

And so I didn't own any of the images, but I had contracts that gave me the exclusive worldwide rights for a significant period of time to that content.

And I was the only person allowed to resell or relicense these all over the world.

I can't really tell you that I can tell you that it was a significant multiple, which was, you know, in anybody's book, a very, very, very, very good multiple, because I had said that I am not going to lie, you know, to sell it unless the number is a number that will allow me to never work again.

Yes.

That was in 2006.

We just celebrated 10 years.

Well, first you dream that you'll be sitting on exotic beaches with beverages with umbrellas in it.

Yes, absolutely.