Reuters reports that Sony sold 50% of their Olympus stake. Now Sony owns 5% only of the Olympus company. The 46.8 billion yen ($390.4 million) capital gain will be used for investments in the sensor and video games business. Sony also said it will maintain its partnership with Olympus despite the lower stake.
36 Responses
April fools? Lol jk
Certainly not 🙂
You’d have to be the dumbest company in the world to actually have a legitimate big press release today
It’s not the same tech 🙂
Not when you want to announced bad news.
Or one Japanese company talking about another Japanese company.
Haha – Sony copied IBIS tech and now there is nothing left to learn from olympus
The partnership was for medical tech only, it has nothing to do with digital cameras.
LOL
APRIL FOOLS!
If they are shifting away from photo companies they can sell Tamron too. although Tamron may be much cheaper than Olympus
Nooooooooooo! this has to be a joke. Olympus is making tons of money from 4/3 market and with the help of Sony they can take over Panasonic. Why would sony give up its share if they can earn it in half a decade or so?
It was only a partnership in medical solutions, not photography.
Opportunity code, they see the capital better serving them elsewere….
this is also a bad joke for stock investors! who came up with this idea?
Sony’s concentrating its efforts on full-frame endoscopes. Painful news for some.
Lol, hahahahaha 🙂
It’s time to drop dead balast and move on to new horizons.
People have panic attack. Sony is going to die without this partnership :O
…. not really, sony’s camera division is doing well enough that it’s actually carrying the whole off sony together with playstation.
They had to do it to save poor play station from Xbox
Simple, they find olympus is literally useless to hold onto it. They’d rather make better sensor to every single camera market, and monopolize them.
Scary sony 🙂
Actually, Sony is not that scary. They failed miserably in the DSLR market. In the mirrorless field they are very innovative (RX1, A7S), but they are still unable to compete with Canikon when it comes to make a kick ass camera system as a whole.
By the way, even if I’m saving for an A7S, I’m aware that it is a one trick pony, as a whole camera it is not my dream.
There is indeed a justified fear that they monopolize the sensor market, which is a bad thing, because it will kill innovation in a long run.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Sony products, especially their innovative A7 lineup, but they are far far away from successfully competing with products like the D800 or 5Diii.
(Reuters) – “Japan’s Sony Corp has announced plans to dissolve company by end of FY15.”
Finally those Japanese companies join together to fight Samsung.
Sure the price & spec from NX1 & S lens, shock them
Good idea, Sony is leveraged enough in camera sales through their own camera manufacturing. If the 5% stake keeps Olympus as Sony sensor customers! this seems ideal.
Finally. Drop the ballast and get away from the joke of the camera market. When did Olympus “photography” (lol) division turn a profit last?
When did sony as a company turn a serious profit last?
Last 2 quarters. Last quarter every division in Sony was in profit with good profits forecast for the future (Hence the shift in investment as this article shows). One of the only camera manufacturers that making money
This just means Sony is expecting Growth from their own mirrorless cameras. If your own cameras are positioned to cannibalise the Olympus cameras, it would make sense to sell your stake in them before it’s too late.
I can also imagine the distance between smartphone sensors and Micro Four Thirds sensors are slowly shrinking more and more. It makes sense to not bet on Micro Four Thirds in the long run.
Their crappy playstations got trashed by xbox, desperate.
Playstation is trashing Xbox. And Xbox is trashing Nintendo. But that doesn’t have anything to do with Cameras.
Cameras are more like a happy family in my opinion. Sony is the head of the family providing sensors to all the members in the family, but now Sony wants their own cameras to take over as well.
Sony mobile business is in bits they need money recover. Nobody buying their junk phones anymore. Their censors and cameras tiny profit is a drop in an ocean against their loses.
https://infogr.am/sony_profits_and_loss_by_division
er. it’s the other way round. that’s why xbox was forced to lower prices iirc.
So sony bought a chunk of olympus’ shares for $397m and sold half of it for $390.4m. Looks like Sony should invest instead of making TVs, phones and laptops.
Hi Sony trolls, I had 2 Sony mirrorless cameras and returned this junk in favour of Olympus and still happy after few years of owning it. Never had problem with it. All Sony stuff I owned including TVs mobile phones cameras etc caused troubles.
Oly doesn’t need this junk company so you trolls go fish yourselves and can smoke on that