Today Reuters and AP reported that Olympus may have to sell off its camera division in order to survive as a company (Olympus consists of several different divisions). This should not be a surprise since the company's stock got hammered in the past few weeks as a result of a fraud scandal. The more interesting question is who will buy Olympus camera division and what would they do with it in the future?
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54 Comments
let the chinese buy it
Maybe no one. Neither Nikon nor Canon needs them. Panasonic is too much of a competitor – and would rather buy Leica. Ricoh just bought Pentax and doesn’t need to try to integrate yet another “system” since marketing is not Ricoh’s strongpoint anyway. Hasselblad certainly isn’t a contender – wrong market, wrong audience. Leica – more likely to be bought than to be a buyer. Sony? They can’t even sell what they currently have, why more problems? Think that only leaves Samsung. They have a competing product segment but seem to want to expand to compete more against Nikon and Canon. Sigma or Cosina or Mamiya may be a candidate, or maybe the Alpa/Schneider syndicate or perhaps Rikinon if it wants to expand beyond lenses. Kodak can’t afford it – no matter how cheap and Fuji doesn’t need Olympus, especially if they are successful with a new X systems camera. May be time for Olympus to go the way of Minolta, Contax, Kyocera, Yashica, Topcon, Bronica, and
others.
Minolta was bought by Sony, and the first camera was named Sony A100 on release
or you forgot?
I think Panasonic needs Olympus.
They may be friendly competitors, but the bigger picture is the m4/3 format.
As two separate entities, the m4/3 format has a better chance of surviving and possibly with some prosperity.
The suitor doesn’t need to be a camera maker.
I agree–without another partner in the m4/3 alliance, Panasonic will look as zany as Samsung.
They could still buy them and run it separately, like a Volkswagen / Audi thing. Few consumers would care that they’re the same company, then maybe we could get that instant AF on a body with a built in VF!
Zeiss should purchase them and finish the as yet uncompleted work on the IKON digital rangefinder.
I can’t see any cameramaker that is interested. Is there not any electronics giant that want to enter the market?
Panasonic, sony and samsung are already in. What about Philips? Toshiba? Yamaha? Pioneer? Casio? Epson?
Samyang (if they could afford it) would be interesting albeit unlikely.
I think Dick has it about right. After Olympus taught Panasonic how to make still cameras, Panasonic now does not need Olympus. The fact that Olympus cameras do not have the latest Panasonic sensors says it all, Panasonic was slowly strangling Olympus. And of course, who else would buy Olympus since their current cameras all depend on Panasonic sensors. Of course there are many very capable and talented folks at Olympus camera division, and hopefully many (most?) of them will find jobs with other Japanese optical/camera companies.
My feeling is any Korean and Chinese suitors will be spurned.
If the Olympus board has its shareholders ‘and customers’ best interests at heart, they had better let the Koreans and Chinese fight over it.
^^^ This.
A few years ago there was a lot of talk about Samsung buying out Pentax (back when Samsung was harvesting Pentax’s SLR experience and supplying Pentax some 14mp APS-C sensors), but then too it seemed unlikely that they would be sold to a foreign company.
This guy is risking a lot just to obtain vengeance.
Olympus has been practising fraudulent accounting for at least five years. Finally someone alerts the board – and gets thrown out. You think that is vengeance? I call it guts.
guts ? This happens with every corporate, in all countries. so what have the Americans to do with it unless they just want to eat Olympus up ?
The guy could react years ago but he did not. He just lost his precious spot and now goes against them, with tons of support, just for the money.
you clearly have not read about the particulars of this story. Go occupy a closet somewhere.
It appears that the “accounting irregularities” go back much further than five years.
I won’t be surprised if GE ends up as a buyer if they can afford it. It would boost their camera division.
I always wondered, who buys a GE camera?
The only place I’ve ever seen them for sale is at Kmart. The guy behind the counter said they are such pieces of crap that he feels guilty every time someone purchases one. Said they have the highest defect rate of any electronics he sell there.
^ their refrigerators are pretty good
Someone willing to once more take the exactly same sensor, put it into yet another camera and market it as the “next generation”.
I am surprised nobody mentionned JVC-Kenwood. They looked very closely at Pentax, then for sale, before stepping out. Besides, JVC once belong to Matsushita (now Panasonic) before being spun out and merged with Kenwood.
“spun off“, sorry.
no one will buy it because it is not for sale.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Olympus_denies_camera_division_shakeup_threat_update_1010am_news_310595.html
Olympus have lately been denying an awful lot that subsequently turned out to be correct though, right?
They denied everything so far just to admit it was true a week later.
Could be Samsung or Toshiba. For the latter it would be the chance to return to the business of compact cameras. For the Olympus system both would be a solid financial backup.
Yeah, I was thinking Samsung…The South Korean giants like Samsung and LG have been doing really well with all the chaos affecting Japanese companies.
Samsung would make a bit of sense…but it would likely mean the end of the NX system. Why keep it going if they acquire another, more mature system with a bigger user base? It’d be a huge shame, because they’re really starting to improve on the camera end, and the world needs an APS mirrorless system to compete with NEX.
Nah, they wouldn’t kill the NX system. But they could surely do with the IBIS tech, the lens expertise, and the colour and JPEG processing. An NX with Olympus colours? It would also remove a competitor for them. They could call it NX-Lite.
Samsung would make sense. I’ve handled and used their NX series and that really does need the refinement that Olympus’ engineers would give it.
I don’t know if both PEN and NX lines could exist in the same company, though. The difference between APS-C and 4/3 is not very large, but the change of aspect ratio means that the lenses for APS-C are less efficient and more bulky- this is because a 2×3 ratio rectangle does not fill the same percentage of a circle of its diagonal as well as a squarer 4×3 ratio rectangle does. Of course, absolute optimal would be a square sensor.
I’ve always thought a 22mmX22mm square sensor would be great. It would fill the image circle of a lens made for APS-C and would not compete with APS-C offerings, as it would be a different thing entirely. With such a sensor, up-scale cameras could use the same lenses as the APS-C cameras, but with more surface area and a more classic medium format output.
Samsung (if they COULD buy Olympus cameras) could then have the PEN line for compactness, the NX line for a mid-range product,(assuming they actually build some midrange lenses) and a SQX line of box-shaped cameras for people who wanted something artistically unique with a square sensor.
But personally, I think Samsung should give up on NX entirely.
I don’t think Toshiba is interested. They have just announced that they are closing three of their six fabs in Japan. The economic downturn is hurting them badly.
first comment is the best. just leave it to the chinese
canon, or casio.
casio or sigma would buy Olympus ? nah
A Canon buyout could make sense. Canon is strong in compacts and DSLRs, non-existent in mirrorless. Olympus m4/3 cameras are doing well in Asia, their compacts and DSLRs are weak. Canon would gain instant marketshare in the ILC category. They could kill reguler 4/3 and Olympus compacts immediately, then develop a new sensor for the Pens and keep the Olympus name strictly as their mirrorless division while they focus on pro/cinema.
Unless, of course, Canon are already well underway with their own mirrorless system…
“Unless, of course, Canon are already well underway with their own mirrorless system…”
I would be very surprised if that was not the case… Canon is big enough in photography that they don’t need a merger with olympus.
Contrary to “conventional wisdom” that Canon doesn’t need them, I think Canon might just give this some thought if the price was right.
Canon fabs their own sensors and have advanced technology in that regard. Thir image processing ASIC chipsets could easily be incorporated into the new camera. I could see them incorporating some of the work they undoubtedly have been doing exploring the mirrorless market into the existing Olympus lineup. They might even keep the “Pen” name. Doing so would provide a product lineup between Canon’s extensive lineup of P&S cameras and the DSLRs giving them something to compete in the growing CSC market.
Holga!
The important word is “may.” I don’t think they will sell.
Toshiba?
A Fuji overtake of Olympus would delight me!
That’s a disaster… anyone who is capable of APS-C shouldn’t buy in to the FourThirds junk. That’s just taking a step backwards.
Agreed. I would hate to see my beloved Fuji buy into M4/3. Not that there’s a huge difference in the sensor size, but it may undermine EXR tech and replace Fuji’s excellent control system with Olympus’ dumbed down yet hard to actually control menu system.
OM’s OK, but I wouldn’t rate it. I haven’t liked any of Olympus’ products since the half frame Pen series. The m4/3 Pens are horrible to control, their short product life cycle is outrageous and their lenses are poor compared to Lumix and essentially all competitors. I won’t shed a tear for them when they’re gone.
I agree with what you say about the bodies but in all fairness there are a few (well, at least one) Oly mFT lenses that are pretty good. I recently compared the Oly 12/2 on a GF3 vs. the Sony 16/2.8 on a Nex 5 and a 5N… almost considered buying the Oly lens + GF3 although I already have the Sony lens and a Nex 5.
The best combo is Olympus and Epson
How about Apple or Google? Might be fun.
Nintendo will & will ask for “royalities” for every picture shot with it !
Apple iPEN! The styling would only take five minutes work
I guess that there are some Japanese Gentlemen who have currently some 4.9 Bn change in their pocket, called yakitori or something simmilar.
At least they have the cash.
That’s what happen when the jap hired a 10 year old CEO.
If it was to be sold outside of Japan, maybe Kodak?
They had a big role in the beginning of the digital era working with Japanese companies on the DCS, but they’ve been losing ground, revenue, and notoriety over the years.
Their EasyShare line of compacts is bafflingly popular among people who don’t know that much about digital photography, owing much thanks to the formerly ubiquitous brand name. Growing up, capturing a moment on film used to be synonymous with Kodak.
The M4/3 line could really help bring the Kodak brand back into the mainstream digital photography world. And the Kodak name could really help sell the Olympus M4/3 cameras to the older generation who still have that lingering brand loyalty from the film days. But can they afford it?
I’m barely into my mid-twenties and even I get tickles of nostalgia when I see a roll of 400TX
Kodak to buy Olympus? Haahahahahahhahaaaaaaa.
Koday would have trouble buying lunch.
People are so ungrateful. All photographers must be absolutely grateful to Kodak for bringing us the possibility to make millions of pictures during several generations. Of course they have problems in this new world, but that’s not a reason to laugh… more respect!