Getty Images strengthens its position against rival Corbis.

Seattle-based Getty Images, the world_s largest provider of archived photographs, has agreed to buy Art.com, a top seller of art online, for as much as $202 million in stock and cash to boost its presence in the growing market of selling art through the Internet. Getty, which sells digital images mostly to businesses such as advertisers, publishers and broadcasters, said Art.com shareholders will receive 4.51 million new Getty shares and as much as $84 million in stock and cash at the time of payment. The acquisition will help Getty sell from its archive of more than 30 million images to consumers via the Internet and adds to its collection more than 100,000 online copies of works by artists and photographs. It also strengthens its position against rival Corbis, created by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, in the $9 billion consumer art market. Chicago-based Art.com, which allows Internet users to buy framed or unframed images, is owned by its management and venture-capital investors including Softbank Technology Ventures, Sandler Capital Management, Benchmark Capital and Minotaur Capital Management. Its Web site generated more than 400,000 average user sessions a month in the first quarter of 1999 and sales orders increased by 40 percent each month this year. It has partnerships with almost 7,000 affiliate sites, as well as portal sites run by Yahoo and America Online. Getty Images said its first-quarter loss widened to $7.9 million from $5.2 million in the same period in 1998. Sales through the Internet more than doubled to $10.4 million.