since its founding shutterstock has acquired a handful of other companies, starting with bigstock in 2009 and followed by digital asset management software provider webdam in 2014. after acquiring rex features and premiumbeat in 2015, shutterstock signed a partnership agreement with the associated press and most recently acquired flashstock in 2017. it also has licensing deals with companies such as penske media corporation. the company had over 100,000 contributors as of march 2016, with an "active customer base of 1.4 million people in 150 countries."