The two major Micro 4/3 partners will soon become much closer, reports The Japan Times.
Pansonic will bolster sagging TV-set earnings by providing between 30 and 50 billion yen (approx. US$378–631 million) to Olympus, in return for shares issued in a private offering.
Some Olympus executives had wanted the company to remain independent, but that proved not to be feasible. Panasonic was evidently selected because Olympus is eager to partner with it on business and product initiatives, apart from the infusion of capital. Spurned suitors include both Sony and Fujifilm, both of which made offers to form business alliances with Olympus.
Mike
(Thanks to Mike Hagburg)
UPDATE June 7th: Or, maybe not (thanks to NikoJorj for this).
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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
... new company names could be Panaspus or Pympus or Polympus or Pampus or Panicus or Sonicpus or..
Posted by: P. Vuksanovich | Wednesday, 06 June 2012 at 08:17 PM
Hrm. Part of the reason i just bought a m43 Olympus was the 2-company support for that format, but given the alternatives, this seems like a reassuring move.
Posted by: Wjcstp | Wednesday, 06 June 2012 at 10:07 PM
I wonder what this M4/3 monopoly means for the end user: better products to compete with Sony and Fuji, but maybe also higher prices because it eliminates the mutual competition within the M4/3 market. Who knows.
Posted by: Bernd Reinhardt | Wednesday, 06 June 2012 at 10:54 PM
So they are the largest shareholder with something more than 10 percent of the company, according to the articles. Not exactly a buy-out, more of a prop-up, and likely good for both in the long run.
Posted by: John Krumm | Wednesday, 06 June 2012 at 11:42 PM
Interesting and surprising considering that Panasonic has reported record losses recently: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18031327
Posted by: Svein-Frode | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 03:11 AM
Denial, as one would expect:
http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/ir/tes/pdf/nr120606.pdf
Posted by: Christer | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 03:47 AM
Bernd, since the mount is not a proprietary standard, it's not technically a monopoly.
Posted by: Earl Dunbar | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 06:44 AM
This does actually make a lot of sense, since Panasonic are the only large scale maker of MFT sensors and the paraphernalia of digital (LCDs, EVFs etc). I expect the internals of both brands will be similar but the feature set and market segmentation will become more distinctive and they will cover more bases instead of competing directly.
This will make it harder, not easier, for the other big guns because it creates one stronger competitor.
Expect Oly to go after the traditional photographer and Panny to go after the crossover movie/stills buyer. Perhaps they may also rationalise their lens range (instead of competing with similar products) and Pany can start using Oly's rather good internal stabilisation.
Posted by: Steve Jacob | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 08:44 AM
Not unhappy, provided it doesn't cause Olympus to lose its uniqueness. Also hope it means good things for the continuation of the 4/3 system.
Posted by: PWL | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 11:10 AM
Fujifilm involvement would lead to more interesting products -- m4/3 with hybrid viewfinders, for instance. Overall, it's kind of sad that when Olympus finally gets critical recognition for its digital direction, it had this financial mess. As an aside, I found the recent OM-D posting/comments interesting, because the camera seemed more available in Canada than elsewhere; back when the OM-4 came out, Olympus professional products were nearly invisible here. A few years after it came out, I saw and grabbed (not literally) an OM4t that was in a store window. Whether it was really new, or a demo, I still don't know -- but it was my main camera for 13 years or so. Now I'm being tempted to get back into the fold, regardless who is the company's owner.
Posted by: Jack Martin | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 11:16 AM
"...new company names could be Panaspus or Pympus or Polympus or Pampus or Panicus or Sonicpus or..."
OlymPanic ?
Though, as John points out, it's an alliance rather than a takeover or merger.
Posted by: Nigel | Thursday, 07 June 2012 at 03:37 PM