Shutterstock IPO Now Worth $54.2 Million

Sites include shutterstock.com . Published on October 11th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Some are calling it the ‘Facebook effect’ but whatever the case, online stock photography provider, Shutterstock is asking for less when it goes public.

In an updated S-1 filing with the SEC, the company revised the offer price for each share at its upcoming IPO to $13 – $15 a share. The revised amount cuts in half the proceeds that Shutterstock will raise to $54.2 million—a big drop from the heady $115 million that was previously announced.

Many analysts believe the revision has come out of fear that the company may suffer the same investor-apathy that Facebook has seen since its fateful IPO back in May. Shutterstock made $120 million over the course of 2011, and although the updated S-1 doesn’t shine light on present revenue figures, many expect revenues to remain consistent year-over-year.

Shutterstock hasn’t helped its case with investors much either. Earlier S-1 filings stated the average cost of each stock photo in its database to be $3; now that figure has been revised downwards to $2. Investors certainly won’t like these new numbers at all so I suppose $54.2 million is just about what the company can raise when it does ring that bell.

The online stock photography space is still very lucrative and to date Shutterstock has seen over 250 million paid downloads. These figures will increase provided the company can keep pace with the competition. From here to IPO, Shutterstock had better manage investor sentiment carefully.