Japanese Government Wants FUJIFILM to “Help” the Suffering NIKON Company – says Japanese Report
Notes
NOTE 1: This is not a FujiRumors rumor, nor have I any information about it. I just report what a huge Japanese blog shared that reports a serious Japanese Magazine.
NOTE 2: Just want to make sure you read Note 1 :)
Nikon’s Struggles
As you all know, Nikon recently reported “extraordinary losses“. Their camera division seems to be in serious trouble. From Nikon’s own report:
“Despite the continuous boom in sales of FPD Lithography Systems […], consolidated operating income as a whole is expected to fall below the previous forecast, impacted by the sluggish and shrinking markets of digital cameras in the Imaging Products Business […]”
Recently Nikon announced they will cut 10% of its Japanese workforce (read here) and they completely dropped the entire (and already announced) DL line (read here). Moreoever, in some countries (like USA and Germany) Sony has surpassed Nikon in the full frame market (read here).
Fujifilm to “Help” Nikon?
The news?
Well, if I get the google translated version right, the Japanese blog hatenablog says here that Fujifilm is one of the companies that could possibly “help” Nikon. The blogger read this information at the reputable Sentaku magazine (check out the follow up article here) – NOTE: in the google translated version, “Sentaku” becomes “Selection”.
The report also says that the Japanese government is directly involved in finding a company that can help Nikon. But why should they? We can only speculate, but the Japanese government might be worried that Chinese, Korean, or Taiwanese companies will start investing into Nikon, but they much prefer a domestic company (possibly Fujifilm) to do that.
What does all this mean?
Now, if true, this does not necessarily mean that Fujifilm would entirely buy Nikon. I believe it’s more likely that Fujifilm would get a certain % of stake in the Nikon company, just like Sony did with the ailing Olympus company a few years ago.
Of course Fujifilm would not make such an investment without any kind of return. It’s up to you in the comments, to share ideas, what Fujifilm could gain from a cooperation with Nikon. For example… could some Nikon factories manufacture Fuji gear in future?
If any Japanese reader can make a better translation, feel free to share it with fujirumor@gmail.com or in the comments down below.
TRANSLATED BY A FR-READER
June edition of Sentaku suggests Fujifilm may help bail out Nikon
Sentaku concluded an article about Nikon in its April edition with speculation that the company could either be acquired or could turn into another Toshiba. It has followed up in its June edition by claiming that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and METI could step in to broker an arrangement with Fujifilm rather than let Nikon be taken over by a Chinese, Korean, or Taiwanese firm.
It would be ironic if a film company ended up bailing out a digital camera firm, but Fujifilm has offered plenty of surprises over the ups and downs of the past twenty years. It has recently enjoyed a quiet revival of its Utsurun-desu disposable cameras (known as QuickSnap outside Japan). That was the last great product of Fujifilm’s silver halide days. The company has managed to remain a pioneer through the past three decades, as the camera market has evolved from silver halide film to disposables, then digital cameras and now smartphones.
Even if Fujifilm does end up buying Nikon, I doubt anything much will change: mirrorless and SLRs are different beasts, suggesting the two companies’ brands would continue to operate in parallel.
Realistically, the main aim of any integration of the two companies would presumably be to bring the two brands together into the same sales channels.
GOOGLE TRANSLATED
According to the ” Selection “ [NOTE: Google translated for SENTAKU – Magazine] June issue (selective publication), Nikon was written ” Selection ” April issue (Selective Publication) “Will it be acquired or” Toshiba “? It seems that Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry are intermediating and are trying to attract them to Fujifilm.
It is surprising again that the composition of “a film shop rescues a digital camera shop” is interesting, but also the vicissitudes of the past 20 years have been on the rise. Speaking of Fujifilm , recently ” Funkunen ” seems to be a secret boom, in fact it is a product in the late silver-halide camera era. The transition of ” silver salt camera → disposable camera → digital camera → smart camera” has passed through in 30 years.
If Fujifilm bought Nikon, I thought that Millerless Single Eye was originally different from the standard and that the camera division remained a separate brand, especially whether nothing would change, Bonjari.
However, in reality, even if business integration is done, the main focus will be at least not in line with camera shops.