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/news/20091104-OYT1T00674.htm?from=main1
Google translated:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....istory_state0=
Babelfish translated:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&t...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.
Last edited by RawheaD; 11-04-2009 at 01:43 AM.