Leica in financial crisis


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Astin said:
Could be Panasonic?

Panasonic would be good, or Sony even (has got CZ though), a real killer combination.
 

Hardly surprising. Leica has been out of touch with reality for the past few decades, and has survived by catering to collectors. Leica gear is great (I've used some, don't own any), but at what price?
 

Lifted this from DPR, food for thought....

"35mm will not die with Leica. Leica has been a mere footnote in 35mm sales in recent decades, despite the quality and reputation.

Leica and Contax started to die not with digital imaging, but when:


1) Cost of manufacturing quality optical equipment in Europe became much more expensive than in Asia

2) Pro-quality zooms became practical. There was no longer any practical image quality difference between Leitz/Zeiss primes and the best zooms from Nikon/Canon. Leica/Contax SLR lines may have had zooms but tiny market share.

3) The nail in the coffin: the advent of fast, accurate, reliable cheap auto-focus.

35mm will continue to shrink, but still may have niche uses for some time.


A digital M7 will not be a big seller, IMHO. Few people use M-mount lenses, few people who never have owned Leica cameras will invest in M-mount lenses without autofocus.

I'm afraid that Leica will eventually revert to just a design and name-licensing shop, giving up manufacturing in the next 10 years. And/or they will be bought by a Kyocera (a la Contax), Cosina, or Panasonic.

And when the baby boomers who still know the Leica brand begin to die out, almost nobody will ever remember that Leica was a storied brand that represented quality."
 

IMHO, the losses may be due to carry over restructuring expenses from their programme in the previous financial year. At their profit levels the restructuring expenses could easily caused the loss. Impact of translating US$ sales to Euro and Euro cost base also possible reasons for losses. Digital has been around for some years but revenue doesnt seem to be that greatly affected as doomsayers predicted. They've been doubling their capital expenditure so they are investing heavily. Think they may be shopping for more capital. Also think that the knock on effect of digital is that retail shops dont carry stock so they prob have to finance these channels to support sales. The way digital technology is developing it may be better to have a late entry for a company with their revenue size. Anyway, Leica is still on to a good thing since its only the capture medium thats changed. My 2cents worth...
 

leica is like diamond: dont need dont buy
 

I dun think Panasonic would want to see Leica collaspe, since they are partners.

On the other hand, if Panasonic could buy over Leica, since they are financial strong, it would be an oppournity for Panasonic to make a foothold in DSLR market.
 

Strangely, I heard (unconfirmed) rumors that a Japanes camera giant who merged (or took over) with another Japanese camera giant has set up a plant very, very close to the Leica facilities ... and that LUMIX lenses bearing the 'LEICA' name is produced by the merged company ... wonder who could it be? :angel:
 

Feinwerkbau said:
Strangely, I heard (unconfirmed) rumors that a Japanese camera giant who merged (or took over) with another Japanese camera giant has set up a plant very, very close to the Leica facilities ... and that LUMIX lenses bearing the 'LEICA' name is produced by the merged company ... wonder who could it be? :angel:
From this description alone and no further information, could it be Konica Minolta?
 

It will be a shame if Panasonic buys over Leica. No offence to Panasonic, but it is an electronic consumer company, not a camera related company. Yes it has lots of technology related and be used on camera, but it is like a Sony instead of a Olympus/Konica Minolta etc. Of course if Panasonic is able to create a system of DSLR/lens/accessories that is above the current class of prosumers, then do I say that use of Leica's quality engineering is great.


Maybe you think I am a Olympus/Canon/Nikon/whatever fanboy, but I do own a Panasonic FX2 because it is great at what it does, PnS.
 

Yes, Panasonic is not a camera company, but unfortunately that is the reality today.. so many camera companies merged / swallowed by electronics or other companies, and many brands are not made by companies whose main business is cameras.

For example, take Yashica. It was taken over by Kyocera. Many people are not aware that Kyocera's main business is ceramics. In fact Kyocera stands for Kyoto Ceramics.

Looking at the others, Hasselblad is now run by Shriro. Canon is such a huge company.. they are into printers, copiers, office automation equipment, and everything else. Even Leica is into so many other systems, they have Leica geosystems, and leica microsystems. Heck, you have cameras coming out of companies like HP, Epson, Sanyo, Toshiba, etc, probably doing it just to have their name mentioned somewhere.

It might not be a bad thing, if Leica merged with some other company like Panasonic etc. If that helps them stay in business and their technology and excellence can be used by someone else, then it's probably a good business decision. Sort of like voigtlander cosina lenses. I've used leica screw mount 50/1.5 and it is really excellent.
 

Feinwerkbau said:
Strangely, I heard (unconfirmed) rumors that a Japanes camera giant who merged (or took over) with another Japanese camera giant has set up a plant very, very close to the Leica facilities ... and that LUMIX lenses bearing the 'LEICA' name is produced by the merged company ... wonder who could it be? :angel:

i guess its panasonic

but panasonic take over leica will be good because it will murderthe leica diehards who are going the way of the dodo anyway :bsmilie: ;)
 

Business model need to change to keep up the trend.
I would say Matsushita should :)
 

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