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| Olympus leaves the camera business after 84 years |
The Japanese manufacturer of optics (Olympus) generates most of its revenue from medical devices and was previously one of the largest camera brands in the world. The company announced plans to completely abandon the camera industry after 84 years and sell the imaging department to a mutual fund.
Japan Industrial Partners, which acquired Sony VAIO activity in 2014, signed a memorandum of understanding allowing Olympus to separate the imaging department and transfer all of its procedures.
The sale marks the end of Olympus home camera business. After many years of manufacturing microscopes, Olympus manufactured its first camera in 1936 and sold it under the camera brand (Zuiko).
Over the past few decades, the company has continued to develop the camera sector and has become one of the companies with the best market share.
The imaging service represents only a small portion of Olympus 'work, and Olympus' current work mainly focuses on providing medical devices (such as endoscopes).
Last year, CEO Yasuo Takeuchi warned reporters that selling the camera division was not prohibited, although the company later downplayed these comments.
Olympus said: After the rapid development of the smartphone, the market shrank, he tried to deal with the very dangerous market of digital cameras, but he concluded that his efforts were insufficient and that the digital camera market was no longer profitable.
Like VAIO, Japan Industrial Partners plans to simplify its business activities and will continue to develop products under Olympus brands such as (OM-D) and (Zuiko).
The company's imaging department has focused on mini-systems for the past three quarters of the past 10 years, and lost money after restructuring attempts over the past three years.
Olympus and Japanese industry partners plan to sign a final agreement by the end of September. The deal was expected to close later this year, and the financial terms for the acquisition were not announced.