Firm in deal to buy out 30% stake

TRALEE-BASED Stockbyte has completed the multi-million buyout of the 30% stake held in the company by ACT Venture Capital.

Stockbyte, founded by journalist Jerry Kennelly and his wife Johanna in 1996, is the fourth-biggest player in the $500m global royalty-free stock photography business.

ACT bought a 25% stake in Stockbyte in 1997 and a further 5% in 2000, bringing its total commitment to $1million, and is understood to have exited the company with a healthy profit on its investment.

Citing competitive necessity, the companies would not disclose the selling price.

The transaction, which returns 100% ownership to the Kennellys, marks a new phase in the company's development.

According to Stockbyte founder and CEO Jerry Kennelly "ACT's involvement helped us to get on our feet. Today, Stockbyte is recognised as a major player in a global market dominated by two giants, Getty Images and Corbis. Our management are confident of their ability to consolidate their position and match or beat the leaders creatively, technologically and commercially. Millions of image searches are conducted by creatives throughout the world every day. The best pictures win every time a significant number of those times, creatives choose Stockbyte content."

Stockbyte's main competitors are Getty Images, Inc, which has a $2.37 billion market capitalisation and Corbis, owned by Bill Gates.

Stockbyte was chosen as the winner of the DHL Exporter of the Year Award earlier this year and has been included in Deloitte Technology Irish Fast 50 in 2002 and both the Irish Fast 50 and European Fast 500 in 2003. Mr Kennelly has been a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Stockbyte invests millions of euro each year working on location throughout the world to create the images which are used in advertising, publishing and web design.