After filing for bankruptcy, Jacksonville, Fla.-based SuperStock has agreed to be bought out by a group of three other stock agencies. Blend, RubberBall and Glow Images outbid Masterfile at $2.8 million for the assets of SuperStock. Masterfile originally planned to spend $1.5 million for SuperStock.
The new joint venture, called RGB, aims to keep SuperStock in business. The companies, however, will remain separate. Blend's Lanny Ziering has been named CEO of SuperStock, which owns a collection of 110,000 images.
The previous holding company of Super-Stock, a21 Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008 for both the stock agency and ArtSelect, a poster company it also owns.
As of September 2008, SuperStock owed its 1,200 photographers nearly $1.2 million in royalty payments. An estimate showed that only 4 percent can viably be paid to photographers unless the buyer is willing to take over the stock photographers' contracts.
Since its founding in 1998, a21 has never shown a profit. SuperStock's U.K. division, although not in bankruptcy, has also been put up for sale.