Gates Buys Bettmann Archive for Digital Service

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates extended his reach into the multimedia business Tuesday as his private company bought the Bettmann Archive, the world’s largest repository of historic photographs.

Corbis Corp., which the software billionaire formed in 1989 to create new uses and markets for digital content, bought the New York-based agency from the closely held Kraus Organization for undisclosed terms.

Founded in the 1930s, the Bettmann Archive owns more than 16 million images, such as news pictures, historic images and specialized art-oriented collections dating to the 19th Century.

Bettmann licenses these to large publishing companies and advertising agencies, and its images are widely used.

Corbis’ digital-media archive has non-exclusive rights to distribute images from such collections as the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as many individual photographers.

“We will be looking together how to use new technologies to enhance both collections, how to complement each others’ collections and how to market them more aggressively,” said Steve Davis, Corbis vice president for business and legal affairs.

Davis said Corbis will use on-line technology to enhance delivery of both companies’ images to customers, and would focus on commercial customers through its Corbis Media licensing division and on consumers through its Corbis Publishing division which makes CD-ROMs.