Hoya sells Pentax to Ricoh

[aaykay]

A view that Hoya wanted to off-load the DSLR arm of Pentax, has been brewing for a while, and finally the shoe seems to have dropped:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1107/11070105ricohbuyspentax.asp

[Rob C]

A view that Hoya wanted to off-load the DSLR arm of Pentax, has been brewing for a while, and finally the shoe seems to have dropped:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1107/11070105ricohbuyspentax.asp

Quite a shift from the days when  the Spotmatic was considered a great camera, used by lots of pros, and the Ricoh brand amateur's province and not in the same club.

Oh well...

Rob C

[BernardLanguillier]

Quite a shift from the days when  the Spotmatic was considered a great camera, used by lots of pros, and the Ricoh brand amateur's province and not in the same club.

Do you know of any example where high end bought low end?

Cheers,
Bernard

[deejjjaaaa]

Do you know of any example where high end bought low end?

Porshe / VW, albeit not exactly identical...  CISCO buying Linksys and so many other in IT hw/sw world

[PierreVandevenne]

FWIW, Porsche failed in its VW takeover attempt. And here is where they should, in theory, go in the future.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703567304575628602671192406.html

But that's an incredibly complex situation, bot both companies owning, at one time or another part of the other or of the controlling arm of the other, a special law that protects the state of Saxony, paper profits that can't be realized, tax liabilities, etc...

In any case, Ricoh + Pentax is potentially more interesting for Pentax users than Hoya + Pentax. Before this I was really tempted to move to Pentax (a bit tired of my Canon gear) based on the current model line up. It will be interesting to watch the direction they will take. Leaning more towards the average consumer market or bringing fresh ideas to the prosumer market?

[Rob C]

Do you know of any example where high end bought low end?

Cheers,
Bernard

Never thought about it, Bernard; the only one that surprised me in the upmarket/downmarket thing was Mercedes lowering its own image values in a search for market share in a world it wasn't in - maybe that rarified atmosphere is really pretty thin on returns, too, for all we know, and they felt they had no choice... I don't think Chrysler did them any favours either.


In photography? Yes, Getty bought some crappy micro...

Appearances etc. - tough world out there.

Rob C

[BernardLanguillier]

Porshe / VW, albeit not exactly identical...  CISCO buying Linksys and so many other in IT hw/sw world

Porsche tried but failed... Cisco OK, but did the money come from their high end product lines?...

Cheers,
Bernard