Copied from my post to getdpi.com:
Actually, having heard various rumours about Sinar, Jenoptik, Franke&Heidecke and so on, including some insider information about possible outcomes, what has happened is for me very positive, almost a best possible outcome. Sinar Germany, which is what is being closed down, is a marketing branch of Sinar in one of their largest markets. During good times these sorts of sub-companies make sense, to handle a lot of volume. In a time like this with the economy in a shambles, they are just overhead.
The fact that they have looked at their business, and decided that they need to trim overhead and run the company as lean as possible is just restructuring (yes, that is what restructuring is, I don't understand the comments about that, and of course, Sinar AG in Feuerthalen is still there), is very positive, because it means that they are still looking forwards, still thinking about the core business, and still have enough optimism left to trim something like this, which apart from Sinar's German customers won't affect anyone at all.
No product has been cancelled, no service has been limited (enough staff for support and warranty handling has been left standing), and there is still some room for optimistic hopes that the economy will have time to recover before Sinar has to take any further actions.
Apart from business as usual, trimming overhead is just about the most healthy sign that Sinar could send out. They still operate as a functional business.
On a different note, Hasselblad's price-cutting move also makes sense in the economy of today, and with Leica being an added competitor in the near future (if all goes according to plan).
However, I really can't understand Phase One's move. In a time like this, when sales in general must be dropping (although the P65+ seems to sell well), it is surely not a time to splurge, and the partial Leaf acquisition has me stumped. It smells like desperation to me, but I could of course be wrong. It just feels like Phase feels more and more marginalized with their tech, and wanted to expand in some kind of way. I think that the AFi would have made a stronger statement than just getting a few good engineers and a little intellectual property. Let's face it: Phase doesn't really stand in the shadow of anyone when it comes to digital backs; rather, it is the camera-side which is behind Hasselblad et al. The one exception might be the skin tone issue, where Leaf owners have been raving about the great skin colour for years.
