Originally posted by fry PS. While I am writing about business sense, one thing to the Hoya-bashers in Pentaxland: it is SO easy to complain about "cost-cutting Hoya". Cost cutting sounds so cruel, so capitalistic, so lean and mean, so WRONG. But is it really? Cost cutting is very often the ONLY* available means of saving a company in the short term, when it is burning cash. Because of that, cost cutting is often (not always) less about sending employees on the street and more about securing jobs for the remainder of the staff. And cost cutting is not easy! - it is hard work. So I say "thank you Hoya for securing Pentax' future!". The further sale of Pentax to Ricoh may well be the next good thing for Pentax. So thanks again Hoya!
I was one of those who talked about "cost-cutting Hoya" - but am I really a Hoya-basher? Let's see some facts:
- Hoya bought Pentax against their will (hostile takeover) - with the help of the ex-president Fumio Urano and Sparx.
- by cost cutting, Hoya managed to bring Pentax back to profit. But, here's the trick: before being bought out, Pentax was profitable - and their top of the range camera - the K10D, quite a success. Why is that?
- Hoya did the cost cutting, Ricoh will be investing in order to grow Pentax.
However, IMO Hoya wasn't that bad as a owner - they just didn't put much effort into growing Pentax but we still saw them e.g. expanding into the DMF market.