Getty Images said today in a filing that its senior marketing guy, Jack Sansolo, is going to retire on June 1. He's not leaving empty-handed. Sansolo will receive $275,000 in cash, which represents his salary and the bonuses he would have received. In return, he has agreed not to do anything that would be in competition with the company for six months.
Getty also gave a big promotion to Bruce Livingstone, the founder of its iStockphoto subsidiary. And it spent $1.2 million two buy two of Livingstone's companies: Web site builder Evolvs Media and independent music site Paper Thin Walls.
Update: I couldn't figure out how music applies to Getty's business model, so I asked the company what was up with these two acquisitions. A spokeswoman gave me this response: "For now, we see them as a means to explore emerging business models in these spaces that we expect to be exciting to our customers and the industry as a whole."