With a 3.3 billion dollar receipt, Getty Images Inc., the first stock-photo business to license images online, according to its website has been purchased by the world's second-largest private-equity firm, Carlyle Group LP.

According to Bloomberg news Carlyle will acquire a controlling stake in Getty Images, while Getty Images co-founder and Chairman Mark Getty and the Getty family will roll "substantially all" of their ownership interests into the transaction, the Washington-based firm said today in a statement. Getty Images's management, including co- founder and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein, will also invest "significant equity" in the company, Carlyle said.

The price is less than the $4 billion that San Francisco- based Hellman & Friedman was seeking, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. CVC Capital Partners Ltd., which was also bidding, declined to top Carlyle's bid, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. Hellman bought Seattle-based Getty Images, the No. 1 distributor of archived photos, for $2.4 billion four years ago and took out dividends of at least $950 million.

Carlyle, which oversees 94 funds and 63 funds-of-funds, has been an active buyer. In the past month, the company agreed to buy a unit from United Technologies Corp. and a majority stake in TCW Group Inc., the $131 billion asset manager founded by Robert Day in 1971.

The purchases have helped Carlyle deploy 80 percent of the capital from its flagship buyout fund, bolstering its pitch for fresh capital as it markets a successor pool.