Professional stock photography company, Getty, completed its purchase of iStockphoto on February 9. Getty plans to let iStockphoto run independently, and will leave Bruce Livingston in charge of the company.

The two companies have different business models for obtaining and distributing images. Getty uses its own staff of professional photographers to produce the photographic imagery it licenses to end users. iStockphoto is open to anyone that wants to sell their images. It uses a micropayment system that lets customers license images for as little as US1.00 each.

Getty says it will use its resources to boost iStockphotois image world wide.

Jonathan Klein, Getty Imagesi co-founder and CEO, commented "We have pioneered most of the important developments in the imagery industry in the last ten years. This time we want to help grow and champion the sort of revolutionary thinking iStockphoto represents as we lead the imagery business to the next stage of growth, serving all markets at every price point."