At its annual meeting in late April, Corbis released details of the privately held company's financial performance for 2005 and its goals for the remainder of 2006. The company reported a revenue increase of 34 percent over the previous year, for a total of $228 million. That figure, however, includes the acquisition of the European stock agency Zefa, which augmented revenues by approximately 30 percent.
In part due to the Zefa purchase, Corbis management announced that the company had failed to achieve the profitability projected at the 2005annual meeting. In order to attain its goals for this year, the company intends to expand its database by 600,000 images and move beyond stock-image licensing to focus on photo assignment and representation services.
Corbis also announced its acquisition of Beateworks, an image licensing company offering interior design and architectural images, which includes InsideOutPix and Beateworks@Home. With headquarters in Southern California, Beateworks photographers create images for such home and lifestyle publications as Elle Decor, In Style, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest and Metropolitan Home. Corbis will integrate the Beateworks collections into its media library, website, global sales and marketing programs.