On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, Getty Images Holdings said it had opened voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, for some of its U.S. entities. The public docket: case 26-11648, Getty Images (US), Inc., status open. It is a prepack to carry out an agreed plan. It is not a liquidation. It is not the archive shutting.

The restructuring support agreement is dated 12 October. Wednesday’s filing is a different act. GlobeNewswire: members of the Getty family, through affiliates, and Koch Equity Development have committed up to $533 million of equity. The company says it will keep operating in the ordinary course, with no anticipated impact on contributors, customers, employees or vendors.

Chief executive Craig Peters: the filing is “a procedural step” to implement the restructuring already announced. Funding the process: up to $143 million from a KED affiliate, plus cash from operations. That is the financing line announced, not a cheque already cashed in full.

The plan, the release says, already has the support of the major creditor groups in the RSA. The company expects to finish by year-end as a privately held firm owned by the equity investors. Expectation is not emergence. Court and regulatory approvals remain. GETY trades OTC after the NYSE delisting, named as a risk, not as today’s judgment.

Bloomberg Law: assets and liabilities each estimated between $1 billion and $10 billion — a petition range, not an exact balance sheet. The filing is limited to certain U.S. entities, not a wind-up of the whole global group.

The company has also launched formal solicitation of the plan and filed motions to keep commitments to employees and vendors. The case is open, not a plan confirmed by a judge. The photo archive, Getty says, stays in use.

Image: 195 Broadway, New York, 8 July 2024, Kidfly182, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The address on the docket, not the whole tower as Getty Images.

Sources consulted: Getty Images Advances Financial Restructuring to Strengthen Balance Sheet and Support Future Growth — GlobeNewswire; Getty Images (US) Ch. 11 — 26-11648, D. Del. — Bankruptcy Observer.