Ricoh buys Pentax.

[DrScottNicol]

just read a press release to this effect over on DPreview.

WoW!!

This is both simultaneously as I secretly predicted (privately, in my head) and a bit of a surprise! After seeing the way the market was going last year / that apparent piece of desperate doggie-doo they announced earlier this week, that Pentax would be bought / sold off is not a surprise.. despite a very respectable history and (based on reviews) very good mid range slrs, theres just no space for 4th / 5th rank player unless they have a unique selling point (which I guess that Ricoh system does). That it was Ricoh is a big surprise.. putting two small cash strapped players together doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for success but I wish them luck.. my collection of 1970s Pentax primes that I use occasionally on the NEX has created a bit of a nostalgic soft spot in my heart for Pentax so it would be a shame to see it go under completely.

Scott

[Birma]

Wow indeed.

BJP link http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journ ... icoh-sense

[agorabasta]

Ricoh is a company very much comparable to Canon. Though Canon reports about twice the sales, their capitalisation in very much equal - must mean Ricoh is more effective.

http://www.ricoh.com/about/company/data/

http://www.canon.com/corp/outline/index.html

[alphaomega]

Ricoh is a company very much comparable to Canon. Though Canon reports about twice the sales, their capitalisation in very much equal - must mean Ricoh is more effective.

I would have thought that Canon are more effective in that they can generate twice the sales for the same capitalisation. Return on investment. If they have same margins Canon will have double ROI compared with Ricoh.

[alphaomega]

Two struggling companies getting together is not a good idea. Typically a good company will eye a struggling company. They will look at their products and management and conclude that the company has potential but the management is bad and their strategy is wrong. They will buy at a low price and install good management. Within a couple of years the profits roll in. Cannot see how Ricoh with their strange products can do anything with Pentax or vice versa. Where is the synergy?

[agorabasta]

I would have thought that Canon are more effective in that they can generate twice the sales for the same capitalisation.

That would be the biggest LOL ever

The shareholders are the only and the ultimate decision-maker.

So, feel free to stay with your opinion, no matter how it feels down there and however lonely...

[artington]

[quote="agorabasta"][quote="alphaomega"]

The shareholders are the only and the ultimate decision-
/[quote]

not when you're investing in Japan. There the ultimate arbiters are the management, I'm afraid

[David Kilpatrick]

I received the release today. Again, I can't really make a page for the site becaue of the slow web connection where I am. But - I would say that this closely echoes the ultimately failed Konica takeover of Minolta. Ricoh, like Konica at that time, is/was an office machinery company (copiers, duplicators) with a secondary interest in cameras. Unlike Konica, it has no interest in sensitised materials.

Ricoh's current profile is again not unlike Konica's was in the world of film and digital cameras - a very sound reputation, original products, but no serious market penetration. Konica sought to achieve this with the Minolta name, and killed their own brand in the process, keeping only the G3-G6 models briefly. But it failed - the takeover disrupted the culture of Minolta (to a disastrous degree) as the whole ethos of the two companies was in no way alike.

I see Ricoh having less of a vast divide to bridge to work with Pentax, but I know what I know of the two UK operations and their ideas at photokina (etc) over the last 30 years. Do not forget how difficult Pentax found it to work with Samsung. Ricoh will be easier, but it will mean the probable end of the Pentax Optio line (or will Ricoh seize on the waterproofing and other neat ideas?). There is also no reasonable way the Ricoh 'system' and the new Pentax system can co-exist. I would put my money on only the Pentax system surviving after maybe two years.

Either that, or we will see an amazing re-run of history in which Ricoh exits the entire photographic market in 2014, selling all its Pentax and Ricoh assets to Canon, in return for an agreement under which specific sectors of Canon's office printer and copier market devolve to Ricoh...

David

[sgt_hepplefinger]

Ricoh is a company very much comparable to Canon. Though Canon reports about twice the sales, their capitalisation in very much equal - must mean Ricoh is more effective.

http://www.ricoh.com/about/company/data/

http://www.canon.com/corp/outline/index.html

That's the capitalisation at book value (the price to which the shares were originally issued times the number of shares).
The current market capitalization is quite different:
The current market capitalization for Canon is $63 billion (http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Canon_%2 ... talization)
Ricoh's is $8 billion (http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Ricoh_%2 ... talization)

Canon also has a much better earnings per share ratio (according to their Annual Report)

So no, Canon is not really comparable to Ricoh.

[artington]

Quite! Canon is a titan by comparison with Ricoh. But, like Nikon, it may be being complacent about the mirror-less revolution. And Sony, smarting from its experience with hackers, may turn aggressive here. I hope!

[Heidfirst]

I would say that this closely echoes the ultimately failed Konica takeover of Minolta. Ricoh, like Konica at that time, is/was an office machinery company (copiers, duplicators) with a secondary interest in cameras. Unlike Konica, it has no interest in sensitised materials.

but Minolta was also an office machines company with a secondary interest in cameras so there was quite a lot of synergy. Imo there was more sense to the KM merger than this but ultimately time will tell.

Hoya looks to be the winner in all this - they got the profitable medical imaging business of Pentax that they wanted.

[agorabasta]

The shareholders are the only and the ultimate decision-makers.

not when you're investing in Japan.

Doesn't matter where it is. They simply believe and entrust their monies or they just don't.

[agorabasta]

That's the capitalisation at book value (the price to which the shares were originally issued times the number of shares).

That would be quite deceptive of them, and punishable at that. They even mention the date for the estimate quoted, so you must be wrong either way you treat it.

Anyway, the sales figures are all that matters as long as they don't lose money selling their produce.

They really are very much comparable to Canon.

[artington]

Doesn't matter where it is. They simply believe and entrust their monies or they just don't.

Can't disagree with you there. My point was made as an investor in Japan, not as a shareholder in general.

[artington]

They really are very much comparable to Canon.

Sorry, they are not. The market capitalisation is the value placed on a company by the stock market and is an identity - ie the number of shares in issue times the share price. That's it! And by that measure Ricoh is a minnow by comparison with Canon.