Getty Images has announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of WireImage.

The deal, which was first announced in February also includes MediaVast, Inc. the owner of WireImage, and sub-brands FilmMagic and Contour Photos.

Getty Images says it intends to maintain MediaVast's three brands and its market Web sites. With the combined resources of Getty Images and WireImage, Getty Images will continue to generate new imagery for their respective celebrity and entertainment collections and make it available for online distribution globally.

"Celebrity, entertainment and sports photography is a fast-growing and vital part of the imagery industry, and this acquisition positions us to meet and exceed the demand for nearly instantaneous content", said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. "Growing our entertainment imagery business has been a key strategic focus, resulting in revenue growth of approximately 60% in each of the last three quarters of 2006. We see further growth opportunity as a result of this acquisition. The real winners will be our customers who can now expect to see exciting new developments with products and services including podcasts, editorial video, multimedia, mobile and exclusive imagery."

The acquisition was driven by the rapidly evolving celebrity imagery business. A recent article in Variety pointed out that the category is increasingly being led by online publications that publish articles at breakneck speed and therefore demand images immediately.

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