Hoya to seek digital camera alliance

Hoya to seek digital camera alliance
Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:32am EDT

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Reiji Murai

TOKYO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Japanese high-tech glass maker Hoya Corp (7741.T) said it aims to turn its Pentax operations profitable in the year to March 2010, but that its digital camera business needs to seek alliances for survival in the long term.

Hoya acquired Pentax in 2007 for $1 billion to add endoscopes and digital cameras to its product portfolio, which includes LCD photomasks, hard disk drive components, eye glass lenses and contact lenses.

Hoya's Pentax unit posted an operating loss of 11.6 billion yen ($122.3 million) in the year ended March 31, hit by restructuring costs and a sluggish digital camera market.

"Our digital camera business is not exactly a big operation. There are naturally questions among us whether it is big enough to go it alone," Hoya Chief Executive Hiroshi Suzuki told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

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As long as the K-mount survives I'm not that bothered which name appears on the front of the products. Samsung would seem a natural partner but I wouldn't rule out Cosina, Seagull, Ricoh, KMZ/Zenit...

A link up with someone like Seagull (with huge manufacturing capacity, experience and links to the Chinese market) could be a very good thing for the future of Pentax.

interesting,i bet they will join forces with samsung and become a global brand

Does this not sound like the beginning of the end?

"Our digital camera business is not exactly a big operation. There are naturally questions among us whether it is big enough to go it alone," Hoya Chief Executive Hiroshi Suzuki told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

Not really, Hoya are glass specialists so I would expect them to keep overall control of lens production but camera bodies don't really sit well with the rest of their portfolio, hence I think it would make sense to get them made by either one of the electronics heavyweights (like Samsung) or an independent who likes a challenge (Cosina).

I don't think Pentax's death knell is being sounded just yet...

Well, no one knows. But bear in mind that this statement comes from the normally tight-lipped, self-effacing world of Japanese corporate man who does not make such remarks by accident. It's a little unusual and Mr Suzuki does not mince his words. They could signal considerable anger and disagreement about Pentax inside Hoya. They are, pointedly, not a vote of confidence. Ho-hum. Glad it's not my problem.

That is a question that a junior associate at any reputable firm of strategy consultants could have easily answered in the negative. So could likely a fair proportion of the sizeable contingent of foreign (non-Japanese) fund managers sitting on equity positions in Hoya.

As such I think the timing of this interview is the most interesting, coming as it is after Hoya along with favoured brokers have no doubt been presenting the second quarter financial results to current and prospective shareholders in the usual debrief meetings.

I believe this staged statement as a clear indication that Hoya management got their collective asses severely chewed over the continued sponsorship of what looks a black hole investment lacking any realistic opportunity for generating sustainable returns.

Here we go. Another doom and gloom thread. These have been going on for as long as there have been camera forums on the Internet.

Every time some idiot starts one it damages the brand because fearful people think of looking elsewhere.

For those who don't know him, Shaky is a troll who only comes here to spread alarm and dissention.

G

I don't think this is doom and gloom. This is "Pentax are doing pretty well but we are in talks and if anyone wants to buy we'll consider it." Which is pretty much what we all thought.

It is entirely possible that Pentax could be bought up by not only a major electronics manufacturer but even by a competitor.

I agree that there are much more upbeat interpretations than Shaky's, but it is Shaky's intentions that I am talking about.

G

So long as it's not Ca***, they would redesign everything, double the price and kill off the K mount in favour of their own.

If Pentax continuously lose Money I don't care who owns it they will eventually give it the chop no matter what loyalty they have as no one can afford to make a loss in any business.

To be fair to Shaky his original post was simply a link to a factual Reuters article, which happens to be a little negative...

As we all know Pentax is a pretty small player in the digital camera market and it's clear from the Hoya statement that it needs investment/support to enhance its standing - I'd be very suprised if someone isn't interested, Konica Minolta lives on in the guise of Sony so the future of Pentax may perhaps follow a similar path

Simon

Samsung would be the obvious choice, but with their track record of compact cameras being average does'nt sound enticing. (their DSLR's were re-badged Pentaxes remember), but if they take the Pentax Camera R&D department, then there is hope. They could even licence the Pentax Brand name for the Cameras, so at least the camera would still have the name on them, and not Samsung. but that would never happen. would it?
Another option would be Casio, but would you want a Casio DSLR, even if it was K-mount? No thought not!

The real question here, is a camera in the future that supports the K-mount, no matter what the lens is (K, M, F, A, FA, DA, DFA, KAF, KAF2 KAF3 etc)

So how about this. Team up with Nikon, Nikon make a K mount version of their DSLR's along side their own F mount range, and along come a number of Pentaxians who want to continue to use their lenses on a great camera.
Hoya continue to make the best primes on the market to fit.

Can you imagine, Nikon D3x with the Pentax 77mm F1.8 limited on the front. mmmmmmmmmm lovely!

It has happened in the past with some success with the Kodak DSLR with either the Canon mount or Nikon mount, so why not again? (just playing devils advocate).

Ultimately its going to be a large electronics company that they will team up with (Samsung, LG, Sharp, Acer, JVC, Sanyo, Seiko Epson etc)

Finally, its not going to happen, Pentax will live on, and produce and sell the finest APS-C DSLR's in the planet and people will realise this and buy them (which is sort of happening, the K-7 is flying off the shelves during the recession)

I've often wondered if you could theorhetically make a camera which supported (say) both the K and F mount, even if there were a built in pre-mount (in effect a base mount then 2 or more 'adaptors')?

But maybe that's a different discussion!