[techmulla]

from the article ..

Kodak Shares, Options Surge Amid Buyout Speculation - Businessweek

in 90's, the kodak shares were trading between 90 and 100 USD mark. at the moment, only in between 10 and 20 USD.

With a wealth load of patents, and pioneers in digital imaging, do you think an acquisition of kodak by hoya would strongly benefit pentax, aswell as hoya?

[aurele]

Kodak is in a bad shape, because the brand decide to change from film to digital lately. So they are still paying this converting today. So i don't think that Kodak will be that bad to be buy (do i use the right tense ? anyway ...). However, it's obvious, that Kodak will have to sell some of his activities that might become useless for them.

And i don't think that, today, it's a good idea for Hoya to buy Kodak. Hoya's main job is to produce lens for photo and medical, nothing more.

[glanglois]

Hoya also produce glass for use in making lenses of many kinds.

And they have a great interest in eyeglasses, not only manufacturing blanks for lenses but also operating a chain of retail eyewear shops in Japan.

I do think, though, that Kodak is too large and diverse for Hoya management. They wouldn't feel comfortable taking on that particular American company.

More at Wikipedia ......

[LowVoltage]

I don't pretend to know much about the benefits of one company merging with or buying another, but I can say I would not look forward to Hoya acquiring part or all of Kodak.

After working in a photo lab for many years and helping many customers with their less-than-stellar point-and-shoot digital cameras I have lost faith in the Kodak brand. While Kodak makes some very fine higher-specification digital cameras they have also flooded the market with entry level models that are, frankly, crap. A lot of my customers only purchased Kodaks because of brand recognition.

While I'm sure there are advantages to having a huge outlet like Kodak for Hoya/Pentax glass and technology, the Kodak product base is simply too large and filled with existing problems. A new Hoya/Pentax/Kodak partnership would be tied up for years dealing with warranties and service on junk that never should have been manufactured.

Just my two cents...

[falconeye]

Why is this in News and not General Talk?

[eddie1960]

good question. not much chance it'll ever be news. I can't imagine a bigger mistake on Hoyas part, the only real advantage being access to their own sensor tech, the huge flaw being all the baggage of a really crappy camera division

[ilya80]

We will sooner see Hoya sell off its digital imaging devision rather than aquire Kodak, methinks.

[Kunzite]

Between "when the H*ll will froze" and "when the pigs will fly", I can't say which will come sooner

[tranq78]

Photography is only a small part of Hoya's business mix. Most of their revenue is generated from the semi-conductor industry. So the only important reason to buy Kokak is to get some important intellectual property that can be used in the medical imaging or electro-optics operations etc.

For details on Hoya's operations, read here... https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/1775-busting-few-p...long-read.html

[lithos]

The price of the 645D's sensors would sure go down if they did...

Of course, the ultimate dream is to have Hoya buy 'em out and for Pentax to start making film cameras again.

Photography is only a small part of Hoya's business mix. Most of their revenue is generated from the semi-conductor industry. So the only important reason to buy Kokak is to get some important intellectual property that can be used in the medical imaging or electro-optics operations etc.

Interesting. If Hoya does well at semicon stuff, and Kodak has a decent sensor research department, then if Hoya buys out Kodak, they could be well on their way to making their own sensors. Then again, they mightn't be as good as Sony's.

[thibs]

Indeed, Kodak only does CCD now.

[Couscousdelight]

If Kodak close, where to find a MF CCD for the 645D ?

[Mistral75]

If Kodak close, where to find a MF CCD for the 645D ?

Dalsa (PhaseOne's partner)?

[gazonk]

If Kodak close, where to find a MF CCD for the 645D ?

Persuade Sony to make a 645-full-frame CMOS sensor ?

[Ratmagiclady]

I could actually see some use to that sort of alliance, however unlikely.

Kodak has had a history of doing good things, getting big eyes, then just as they're putting their best foot forward, stapling it to the ground with something proprietary that kills the whole deal. That whole '35mm film is so successful, let's try and make it obsolete with some stupid 'Advanced Photo System' format we could as easily do with what we got already!' ) And they just keep doing it. All the way on back through what, the 'disc' format, the disastrous running cannonball they took at instant photography, the 620 film spool, (Why? )

They jump into computers and even a sorely-needed marketshare for user-friendly photo-making interfaces, and still kind of have a 'glory days' mindset like they're about to control the market and can push whatever incompatibilities or shortcomings they like.

Kind of the right idea, (Ok, let's make family snaps easy to print, cheaper, and more durable,) ...in the process they messed up the implementation, maybe never made it quite *right,* you know?

You know, instead of selling the name Schneider to Samsung to put on a Pentax lens, they ought to make a Schneider lens that'll mean something you can put on your Pentax.

And, yeah, *sure,* partner to make a film camera to go with. It's not a huge market, but it's a deciding one for a lot of people.

I do think it's about time we had an American camera industry again, though. It's just the kind of 'high tech jobs' we keep saying we're looking for.

I can hold in my hand a Kodak Signet 35. From the mid-Fifties. Originally-designed for the military, it's practically bomb-proof, has a serious Ektar 44 on there, a wonderful if teeny combined view/rangefinder, probably cost about K20D money in period dollars, and ...still works. The only obsolete thing about the little guy is the ...proprietary exposure calculator slides on the back which refers to Kodak films they haven't made in fourty or fifty years at those speeds, instead of an ASA(that's ISO to digital folks)/DIN rating.