Ricoh buys Pentax.
Forum rules
No more than three images or three external links allowed in any post or reply. Please trim quotations and do not include images in quotes unless essential.
No more than three images or three external links allowed in any post or reply. Please trim quotations and do not include images in quotes unless essential.
- DrScottNicol
- Oligarch
- Posts: 158
- Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:50 am
- Location: Kent, UK
- Contact:
Ricoh buys Pentax.
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
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
Sony NEX 5n (IR Conversion) / Nex 5r / a55 / NEX 6 / Dynax 7 / a77 user
http://www.SNICOLPHOTOS.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drsnicol
http://www.SNICOLPHOTOS.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drsnicol
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
Nex 5, Nex 6 (IR), A7M2, A99 and a bunch of lenses.
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1198
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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
http://www.ricoh.com/about/company/data/
http://www.canon.com/corp/outline/index.html
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1196
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:20 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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.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.
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1196
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:20 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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?
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1198
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
That would be the biggest LOL everalphaomega wrote:I would have thought that Canon are more effective in that they can generate twice the sales for the same capitalisation.
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...
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
[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
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
-
- Site Admin
- Posts: 5985
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
- Location: Kelso, Scotland
- Contact:
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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
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
-
- Acolyte
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:01 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
That's the capitalisation at book value (the price to which the shares were originally issued times the number of shares).agorabasta wrote: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
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.
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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!
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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.David Kilpatrick wrote: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.
Hoya looks to be the winner in all this - they got the profitable medical imaging business of Pentax that they wanted.
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1198
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
Doesn't matter where it is. They simply believe and entrust their monies or they just don't.artington wrote:agorabasta wrote:
The shareholders are the only and the ultimate decision-makers.
not when you're investing in Japan.
-
- Viceroy
- Posts: 1198
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 pm
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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.sgt_hepplefinger wrote:That's the capitalisation at book value (the price to which the shares were originally issued times the number of shares).
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.
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
Can't disagree with you there. My point was made as an investor in Japan, not as a shareholder in general.agorabasta wrote:
Doesn't matter where it is. They simply believe and entrust their monies or they just don't.
Re: Ricoh buys Pentax.
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.agorabasta wrote: They really are very much comparable to Canon.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests