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The firm hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on a potential sale, these people said. The company has attracted interest from several buyers, mostly private equity firms, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and others.

Final bids are due by the end of the month, but people briefed on the auction cautioned that it was unclear which firms would submit a final bid. A sale is not assured, because the tightening of the high-yield debt markets has cut off private equity firms from the lifeblood of their business, making it harder to finance deals.

Getty, founded in 1995 in Seattle, has grown through a series of acquisitions into a go-to source for visual media, claiming an average service of 3.2 billion images and 4 million unique visitors at its Web site each month. The company’s main selling point is the licensing of high-quality images from professional photographers around the world. Among its main clients are advertising agencies and media companies, including The New York Times. It also offers video footage for use in movies, television and the Internet.

Some of the company’s premium offerings include the distribution of images from the Time Life and National Geographic collections. Early last year, Getty bought its biggest competitor, MediaVast, for $202 million, acquiring the WireImage service in the process. Last year, Getty held takeover talks with the publicly held Jupitermedia Corporation, but the discussions ended quickly without a deal.

Getty’s shares have declined more than 47 percent in the last year. Its shares fell 10 percent in August, when the company lowered its full-year profit estimate because of competition from low-cost rivals. Last November, it reported a third-quarter profit of $25.7 million, down 31 percent from a year ago.

Last April, Getty also restated its earnings and took a $28 million to $32 million charge after an internal investigation into the backdating of stock options grants to executives.

Started by Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty, a scion of the J. Paul Getty oil fortune, the company began striking deals and acquiring the photo archives of companies like PhotoDisc. Its growth began to skyrocket with later acquisitions like its $183 million purchase of Eastman Kodak’s Image Bank in 1999. [24x7]

2007: A Banner Year for Venture Capital
2007 has been assessed as the best year for venture investments in the Northwest since 2000. In Washington state, investors shelled out $345.4 million to 44 companies in the fourth quarter, compared with $276.9 million and 38 companies the previous year. In 2007, companies raised $1.3 billion, up 27.2 percent from a year earlier.

Nationally, companies raised $29.4 billion in 2007 — the most in six years and an increase of 10.8 percent over the previous year. In 2006, software made up 27 percent of all deals. In 2007, it fell to 20 percent. Medical devices totaled 20.2 percent in 2006, falling to just 12.6 percent in 2007.

Media and entertainment investments made up 6 percent of investments in 2007, jumping from just 4.5 percent in 2006. Telecommunications grew to 10.4 percent in 2007 from 7.7 percent in 2006. Similar increases occurred in the retailing and semiconductor categories.

The largest investment of the fourth quarter was a telecom deal, the $55 million raised by Seattle-based Telecom Transport Management. Since 2003, the dollars invested across the U.S. have increased 50 percent. In Washington, investments have increased 188 percent. Source: Seattle Times, Tricia Duryee. [24x7]