What Happened?

Shares of stock photography and footage provider Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) jumped 39.8% in the pre-market session after the company confirmed it is being acquired by Getty Images. Shutterstock shareholders have three options for their payout: they can receive approximately $28.85 in cash per share, exchange each of their shares for about 13.67 shares of Getty Images (GETY) common stock, or opt for a mixed package of 9.17 shares of GETY stock and $9.50 in cash for each Shutterstock (SSTK) share they own.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Shutterstock’s shares are quite volatile and have had 17 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Shutterstock and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock gained 9.3% on the news that Bloomberg reported that the company (SSTK) is discussing a potential merger with Getty Images. The sources added that talks are ongoing, and it is still possible that a deal won't be finalized.

Shutterstock is up 24.1% since the beginning of the year, but at $36.20 per share, it is still trading 30.1% below its 52-week high of $51.79 from March 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Shutterstock’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $836.41.

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