[pshute]

I wonder what the possibilities are now. Recovery? Closure? Mergers? And what would these mean for camera users? Who knows, perhaps the camera division is separate and isolated from all this.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/ol...108-1n5h3.html

"OLYMPUS has admitted that it hid losses by paying inflated fees to advisers on the 2008 acquisition of Gyrus Group, the first admission of wrongdoing from the Japanese camera and medical-equipment maker since accusations from its former chief executive surfaced four weeks ago.

The stock plunged yesterday after the company said it also used three other acquisitions to help hide the losses on investments from the 1990s. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is investigating the dealings.

Olympus, the world's biggest maker of endoscopes, plunged 29 per cent - the maximum allowable daily fall - at the open in Tokyo trading. The furore surrounding allegations by Michael Woodford after he was axed as CEO have caused the stock to lose almost 70 per cent of its value since October 14."

[njlarsen]

I agree it looks bad for the company. I personally hope the basic business is still sound and can be flowering again, because it is good to have two companies behind the m4/3 system that I have a camera from.

Niels

[RJM]

With the stock price so low I would not be suprised if Hoya makes a grab for the endoscope biz and maybe spin the camera division off to Ricoh the same way they did with Pentax.

[carlj]

With legacy camera makers it goes one of two ways, buy out the name, tech, etc by an electronics firm, as Sony did to Minolta, or join forces with a second legacy maker, ie, Pentax/Ricoh. If the former, then Panasonic would seem to be the obvious choice.

[etudiant]

RJM is bang on the money.
Afaik the losses were largely written off by the recording of excess acquisition prices and fees, so the company is currently very cheaply priced. Hoya might wait though to see if they get delisted, which would make it easier to do a deal.

[speckled wood]

Another one for whom Olympus might be a useful buy is Fuji, it would give them a ready prepared range of SLRS and interchangeable lens cameras.

[etudiant]

The cameras are a hobby activity for Olympus, afaik.
That business is not that fast growing or profitable, so it would only make sense to consolidate it into another producer, it would not survive on its own.

[Cristian Mihai]

Originally Posted by etudiant

The cameras are a hobby activity for Olympus, afaik.
That business is not that fast growing or profitable, so it would only make sense to consolidate it into another producer, it would not survive on its own.

So, the point is...?

[speckled wood]

Olympus were early in the field of evf interchangeable lens cameras and there is still a lot of brand loyalty, I would be most surprised if the the brand and its range of cameras did not survive.

[ammadoux]

Originally Posted by speckled wood

Olympus were early in the field of evf interchangeable lens cameras and there is still a lot of brand loyalty, I would be most surprised if the the brand and its range of cameras did not survive.

as a 22 year user of Olympus cameras, i really hope so.

[etudiant]

Originally Posted by Cristian Mihai

So, the point is...?

RJM noted a relevant precedent.
Cameras are a non core asset for Olympus and not very profitable.
So that business is most at risk of disposal in the event of a reorganization/restructuring.

[RJM]

Unfortunately for Olympus, this scandal brought unwanted attention to Japan's corporate culture and I suspect orders have been issued by the country's puppet masters to take the most severe actions against Olympus for "appearances" and to put this to bed ASAP lest the spotlight falls onto more public corporations.

Delisting is a given at this point and I would bet Olympus's various groups are being shopped around now and the company will be broken up by April. The camera division has been a money loser for years but has marquee cache and gets space on store shelves so might be a good match for Ricoh-Pentax that is pretty much MIA from most stores outside Japan. I don't think Panasonic would be interested in them despite their partnership on m4/3 which always struck me as odd anyway given their different approach to image stabilization. Methinks the camera divisions from Olympus and Ricoh-Pentax would get on better in a merger than they would with Panasonic's if they had any say in the matter too.

[fugl]

More details on this sorry affair in today's NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/bu...ted=2&_r=1&hpw

[fugl]

Yet more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7MP0GW20111125

[fugl]

Still more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...750127488.html

[Geoff Brown]

Olympus cameras could easily disappear. Who remembers Topcon cameras from the fifties, their cameras were then as well regarded as Nikon. Nevertheless they are now known mainly as optical measuring instrument manufacturers and mainstream camera manufacturing ceased long ago.