By Daryl Lang

Having completed its $96 million acquisition of Jupiterimages, Getty Images is now preparing to slash the stock agency’s staff.

An undisclosed number of Jupiterimages employees in the U.S. are being laid off in the next 60 days, a company spokesperson said Friday.

Getty also plans to close multiple Jupiterimages offices in the U.S., moving some employees into Getty offices, according to spokesperson Bridget Russel. Getty could not say which Jupiterimages offices in the U.S. it planned to keep open.

The picture looks less bleak in Europe; Getty says Jupiterimages's EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) offices are staying put for now.

Jupiterimages, which grew in size earlier this decade by acquiring a series of smaller, wholly owned stock image libraries, was once considered the third-largest stock agency after Getty Images and Corbis. But the decline of traditional stock image licensing, accelerated by the recession, saw the agency go into decline. During the talks to acquire the company last year, Getty continually dropped the value of its offer, ending up at about half of where the bidding started.

Getty has not said what it plans to do with Jupiterimages's various stock brands, which include Jupiterimages.com, the StockXpert microstock site and Photos.com. For now, the sites are still wearing the Jupiterimages brand. When the acquisition was announced last October, Getty said it planned to keep the Jupiterimages brands alive.

Jupiterimages had 497 employees at the end of 2007, according to the company's most recent annual report. Until the sale became official last Friday, Jupiterimages was part of a larger company called Jupitermedia. Following the sale, Jupitermedia became a much smaller company with a new name, WebMediaBrands. CEO Alan Meckler stayed with WebMediaBrands.

Getty is owned by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

This is not the first time Getty has taken over a competitor and immediately cut staff. When Getty bought photo agency Mediavast in 2007, it followed the acquisition with a round of layoffs.

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Feb. 23, 2009: Jupitermedia Shareholders Approve Sale of Jupiterimages to Getty
Dec. 8, 2008: Getty-Jupiter Deal Moving Ahead
Oct. 23, 2008: Getty Images Agrees to Buy Jupiterimages for $96 Million
April 19, 2007: Getty Begins Laying Off MediaVast Staff