Good news from Pentax

[codiac2600]

All taken from Bloomberg (actually truthful news) and some of the recent things that have surfaced from Pentax have been squashed yet again including that all the board members quit and so on. I'm starting to see a trend her and so did bloomberg

The new board will include two representatives from Pentax, two from Hoya and one outside director, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information.

Pentax's Okamura declined to comment on the report.

I think the Nikkei news needs to stick a thumb in their butts and stop unloading stuff that isn't from Pentax and people at "other" forums need to stop doing the same thing, but thats just a personal opinion. Other than that I think Pentax is still trying not to merge by waiting till exactly the 31st to make a decision, but thats my speculation not anything that the fake news has reported yet. Not too mention if you go to the Japanese Pentax site and translate their newest news report they are going to unload a massive newspaper add about winning the two most esteemed camera awards of the year with the K10D and are going to print it in the top like 10 Japanese newspapers. For a company that everyone keeps saying that dying they sure are doing a lot of work making upgrades and releasing new software as of yesterday and doing a lot of advertising to boot.

By Junko Hayashi and Hiroshi Suzuki

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Pentax Corp., Japan's oldest single- lens reflex camera maker, will probably accept Hoya Corp.'s takeover proposal at the end of this month, ending a tussle for control of the company.

The decision will be made at Tokyo-based Pentax's board meeting on May 31, said spokesman Jiro Okamura. The board was to decide today, he said, declining to provide a reason for the delay. ``Our hope is that Pentax will approve the tender offer by Hoya,'' Okamura said by telephone, without elaborating.

An agreement would advance Hoya President Hiroshi Suzuki's plans to expand sales of medical equipment including endoscopes and surgical scissors. Pentax, which made Japan's first SLR camera in 1952, counts on its medical business for earnings growth after price competition eroded profitability in cameras.

``Pentax may be asking Hoya to accept some business conditions to allow the takeover, and I wonder if some of them may hinder profit growth,'' said Tetsuya Wadaki, a Tokyo-based analyst with Nomura Securities Co., who doesn't have an investment rating on Pentax.

Tokyo-based Hoya, Japan's largest maker of optical glass, is also scheduled to hold a board meeting on May 31.

Sparx Group Co., Pentax's biggest shareholder, this week met Kou Torigoe, who oversees the digital camera business, and Nobuaki Tanishima, in charge of corporate planning, said Shoichi Miyasaka, an executive at a Sparx unit. Pentax is nominating Torigoe and Tanishima for the board, Miyasaka said.

Pentax Representatives

The new board will include two representatives from Pentax, two from Hoya and one outside director, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information.

Pentax's Okamura declined to comment on the report.

All eight members of Pentax's board met this morning to discuss its management plan, Okamura said. Pentax President Takashi Watanuki explained the plan to Sparx's Miyasaka in the afternoon, he said.

Shares of Pentax rose 0.1 percent to 772 yen at the close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while Hoya's stock gained 0.5 percent to 4,010 yen. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.2 percent.

Hoya in December agreed to buy Pentax in a share swap valued at 90.6 billion yen ($749 million) at the time. In April, Hoya increased the bid and switched to a cash offer of 770 yen a share, after its stock price dropped about 10 percent.

Fumio Urano, Pentax president at the time, and Chief Financial Officer Katsuo Mori, who supported the cash offer, were ousted after the board rejected the bid on concern that the company would have fewer directors on the board.

Cameras, Medical Equipment

Urano, 64, headed the company for almost seven years, and led Pentax back to profit in 2003 after three years of losses by focusing on higher-margin single-lens reflex cameras and medical equipment. The value of the company's stock more than tripled since he took over in June 2000. The company entered the endoscope business in 1977, according to its Web site.

Pentax forecasts net income to rise 6.4 percent to 3.8 billion yen in the year ending March 2008 on an 8 percent increase in sales. Last year, profit quadrupled to 3.57 billion yen on a 1.6 billion yen gain from property sales.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net ; Junko Hayashi in Tokyo at juhayashi@bloomberg.net .

[feronovak]

Sparx Group Co., Pentax's biggest shareholder, this week met Kou Torigoe, who oversees the digital camera business, and Nobuaki Tanishima, in charge of corporate planning, said Shoichi Miyasaka, an executive at a Sparx unit. Pentax is nominating Torigoe and Tanishima for the board, Miyasaka said.

This sounds really promising if true. If Pentax wants to put person who oversees digital camera business to me it sounds like they want to make sure Hoya keeps imaging up and running

[codiac2600]

Whats funny is this article totally makes DPR look dumb cause Phil posted that Pentax agreed to the merger and all the board members quit even though none of that is true! Oh gosh when will all the false news end.

[Jonson PL]

Thanks for the info, and your thoughts on it.

Originally Posted by codiac2600

Not too mention if you go to the Japanese Pentax site and translate their newest news report they are going to unload a massive newspaper add about winning the two most esteemed camera awards of the year with the K10D and are going to print it in the top like 10 Japanese newspapers. For a company that everyone keeps saying that dying they sure are doing a lot of work making upgrades and releasing new software as of yesterday and doing a lot of advertising to boot.

Is there a translation of the news about this add campaign ?

[codiac2600]

Just use babel fish translator to read the page. States the full page adds they are doing and when and on which paper from the 24th and 25th of May.

PENTAX Announce 2007 : ¿·Ê¹Á´Ì̹*¹ð¤Î·ÇºÜ¤Ë¤Ä¤¤¤Æ

[bwells]

Hi all

new to the forum but have been a pentax user since mid 1970's. have looked at this and associated threads. Pentax were late in bringing out a digital SLR model that could complete with the likes of Canon and Nikon; in the K10D (which i purchased recently), they have succeeded. It does not surprise me that it is winning awards.

with all the press speculation around, it is difficult to know exactly what happens in corporate board rooms and mergers until it is made public. However, Pentax have been going a long time, have rturned as makes of comparable products to competitors and it is being touted as a merger, not a take over. I think we will see Pentax continuing and, hopefully, developing.

brian