HOYA to sell Pentax

*RawheaD* · 11-04-2009, 01:25 AM

Title says it. JVC Victor/Kenwood joint owned JVC Kenwood Holdings is in negotiations with Hoya to purchase the Pentax/Digital Camera division. Looks like it's pretty much set. Could come to an agreement as early as this month.

News in Japanese:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/atmoney/new...htm?from=main1

Google translated:
http://translate.google.com/translat...istory_state0=

Babelfish translated:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate...rUrl=Translate

Ahh, what the eff, they both suck. Rough translation:

Japan Victor and Kenwood's jointly owned company, JVC Kenwood Holding is in talks with Hoya about purchasing the latter's Digital Camera division known under the "Pentax" brand, it was made clear on the 4th of Nov.

With Victor's technology in the digital video realm, they aim to enter into the digital camera business.

They could reach an agreement as early as this month. JVC Kenwood is currently in negotiations to sell off their music software division. They hope to use the profit on sale to strengthen their imaging hardware business, which they deem as a growing sector.

Victor currently owns 20% o the global video camera market and is the second largest player after Sony's 40%. however, the market is near saturation and declining costs is accelerating. They have made the judgement that by moving into the realm of digital cameras, with many things in common with video cameras, such as lenses and image processing technologies, it would lead them to business expansion.

On the other side, Hoya purchased Pentax in '07, and has succeeded in strengthening their medical equipment areas, such as endoscopes; however the digital camera division shipped only 2 million units in '08, which was not even in the Top 10 within Japan. They plan to back out from digital cameras, which are poor in synergistic effect, and focus their efforts on areas where they have traditionally had strength, such as optical lenses.

kevinschoenmakers · 11-04-2009, 01:46 AM

Doesn't sound like too bad a mothercompany for Pentax to have.

Dom · 11-04-2009, 01:55 AM

How dose this effect the FF body road map?

bunegg · 11-04-2009, 02:07 AM

omg

is that going to affect camera production?

*RawheaD* · 11-04-2009, 02:15 AM

Hopefully it won't affect it in a bad way, but some radical restructing might be part of the plan.

Better video capabilities is probably something we can look forward to :-)

Supernaut · 11-04-2009, 02:18 AM

Maybe not so bad. Similar to what happened to Minolta when Sony took over. It's the electronic know-how that is missing Pentax, here it is.
Hopefully they keep the momentum Hoya began to give Pentax and manage to keep the nische of compact and rugged stuff. Not chasing the big two that is.

I hope they are sensible enough to not smack a JVC or Kenwood sticker on the cameras and lenses though. Those brands are low quality car stereos for me

*RawheaD* · 11-04-2009, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by Dom

How dose this effect the FF body road map?

FF body road map? What FF body road map? If you're talking about the imaginary FF body road map that some forum members have lying around their houses, then JVC/Pentax have no idea about them, and so the effect would be near zero––they remain imaginary

Anyway, seriously, I don't think it has any effect there; JVC/Victor has exactly zero to contribute in that realm.

bunegg · 11-04-2009, 02:19 AM

den prob the cameras in future will have video cam sensors?

*res3567* · 11-04-2009, 02:21 AM

Originally Posted by Supernaut

I hope they are sensible enough to not smack a JVC or Kenwood sticker on the cameras and lenses though. Those brands are low quality car stereos for me

Hey hey! I'm packing a Kenwood in my pickup and it ROOOCKS!

*RawheaD* · 11-04-2009, 02:25 AM

I agree Kenwood ain't half bad. But even if they were frikkin' McIntosh, I wouldn't want their logo on my Pentax camera

*LeDave* · 11-04-2009, 02:30 AM

JVC and Kenwood sucks! It will be interesting how Pentax will go with JVC and Kenwood, I always thought they were cheap "Wal-Mart exclusive-like" brands.

Supernaut · 11-04-2009, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by RawheaD

I agree Kenwood ain't half bad. But even if they were frikkin' McIntosh, I wouldn't want their logo on my Pentax camera

I wonder how Minolta users felt when a big ugly "SONY" ended up on everything. Something like having a windows logo on the desktop for the hard core linux nerds I guess.

Dom · 11-04-2009, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by RawheaD

FF body road map? What FF body road map? If you're talking about the imaginary FF body road map that some forum members have lying around their houses, then JVC/Pentax have no idea about them, and so the effect would be near zero––they remain imaginary

Anyway, seriously, I don't think it has any effect there; JVC/Victor has exactly zero to contribute in that realm.

I'm guessing that you have some inside info that qualify you to comment on this as fact?

The evidence so far would point to a FF in 2010.
Possible Pentax FF Sensor

*LeDave* · 11-04-2009, 03:29 AM

Originally Posted by Supernaut

I wonder how Minolta users felt when a big ugly "SONY" ended up on everything. Something like having a windows logo on the desktop for the hard core linux nerds I guess.

That really sucked, they should have at least kept the Minolta name. That's really sad how Sony just took it and slapped Sony on it. I hope JVC doesn't slap JVC over the Pentax logo.

*falconeye* · 11-04-2009, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by RawheaD

JVC Victor/Kenwood joint owned JVC Kenwood Holdings is in negotiations with Hoya to purchase the Pentax/Digital Camera division.

I hope negotiations fail and fail quickly.

Pentax has been delayed by Hoya aquisition in the past and this would delay them again. One further delay may be fine. But not an avoidable "we try everything" approach by a camcorder maker to find a future. They cannot be the final destination for the Pentax brand.