Smartphones Shatter Mirrorless Hopes ? - Reuters

[Atarandas]

Saw an interesting article by Reuters, titled : Japan Mid-Tier Camera Makers Face Shakeout as Smartphones Shatter Mirrorless Hopes,

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/12/29/business/29reuters-japan-cameras.html?hp&_r=1&

I can see the analyst's arguments, but is wondering how representative those sentiments are. The way I see it is, smart phones and mirrorless can co exist , as mirrorless was never meant to replace smartphones.

Not so sure about the article's perceive brand power as well. Nevertheless, a provocative article before the close of the year. Cheers

 

[keithwee]

Provocative yes but anyone who has used a handphone and a Mirrorless will come to the conclusion the strengths and weaknesses of each.

It's just a simple question of what type a shooter one is and the demands one have from photography.

I've friends using iPhones for photography and they r perfectly happy with it while some will definitely swear by their camera setups and these are the ones who r clear about what Mirrorless cameras can do that smartphone cameras can't.

What I find more interesting is the conclusion that Pana Oly and Fuji are facing very tough competition from camera phones while Canikon & Sony aren't. Kinda biased article if u ask me especially on the misconceived perception of 'lack of connectivity options' on cameras from these brands.

 

[Atarandas]

Provocative yes but anyone who has used a handphone and a Mirrorless will come to the conclusion the strengths and weaknesses of each.

It's just a simple question of what type a shooter one is and the demands one have from photography.

I've friends using iPhones for photography and they r perfectly happy with it while some will definitely swear by their camera setups and these are the ones who r clear about what Mirrorless cameras can do that smartphone cameras can't.

What I find more interesting is the conclusion that Pana Oly and Fuji are facing very tough competition from camera phones while Canikon & Sony aren't. Kinda biased article if u ask me especially on the misconceived perception of 'lack of connectivity options' on cameras from these brands.

I agree its bias. Perhaps the angle of its argument lies in the overall consideration of the financial strengths of others and not on the technical aspects of the cameras offered by Pany, Oly and Fuji.

 

[Atarandas]

And they say there no smoke without fire , Panasonic has sold off controlling stake in its imaging sensor business to tower jazz
http://www.towerjazz.com/prs/TowerJazz_Panasonic_JV_JOINTPR_20Dec2013.pdf

 

[kandinsky]

And they say there no smoke without fire , Panasonic has sold off controlling stake in its imaging sensor business to tower jazz
http://www.towerjazz.com/prs/TowerJazz_Panasonic_JV_JOINTPR_20Dec2013.pdf

Have to admit, I didn't really understand the news, guessing that it's probably easily misunderstood by others as well. After some further reading, realized that "spinning off their loss-making semiconductor factories into a joint venture with TowerJazz" is quite different from '"selling off controlling stake in its imaging sensor business".

Here's one analysis I found:

TOWERJAZZ TO ACQUIRE THREE OF PANASONIC’S SEMICONDUCTOR FABS (NIKKEI HEADLINE)
NOVEMBER 28, 2013 GERHARD FASOL

Nikkei (the world’s biggest business daily, see our J-Media report) reported as their top headline yesterday, that TowerJazz is planning to acquire interests in three of Panasonic’s reportedly largely written-off semiconductor fabs valued at about US$ 100 million.

Nikkei reports that Panasonic plans to spin the three fabs located in Uozu-shi in Toyama-ken (富山県魚津&#24066, in Tonami-shi in Toyama-ken (富山県砺波&#24066 and Myoku-shi in Niigata-ken (新潟県妙高&#24066 into a separate company. Recently it has been reported, that this new company will be owned 51% by TowerJazz and 49% by Panasonic.

TowerJazz is a leading Israel-USA foundry company traded on NASDAQ. TowerJazz in 2011 acquired a semiconductor fab in Nishiwaki-shi in Hiyogo-ken (兵庫県西脇&#24066. The Nishiwaki fab was initially built by a joint-venture between Texas-Instruments and Kobe-Steel, and was later acquired by Micron. TowerJazz acquired the Nishiwaki-fab from Micron in 2011.

We believe that the driver for these transactions are both PUSH and PULL:

PUSH:
Panasonic’s need for capital
Panasonic’s need to withdraw from loss-making operations (Panasonic’s semiconductor operations reported YEN 20500 million (US$ 200 million) operating losses for revenues of YEN 184 billion YEN (US$ 1.8 billion) and need to focus on a smaller number of core businesses
need for investments in the semiconductor fabs to upgrade equipment and Panasonic’s difficulties to supply such capital
the imperative to globalize management
PULL:
TowerJazz’ business focus on fab operations, and cooperations with partners
TowerJazz’ interest in expanding operations in Japan

http://www.eurotechnology.com/2013/11/28/towerjazz/

See also: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-towerjazz-panasonic-idUSBRE9BJ08E20131220

 

[Atarandas]

Have to admit, I didn't really understand the news, guessing that it's probably easily misunderstood by others as well. After some further reading, realized that "spinning off their loss-making semiconductor factories into a joint venture with TowerJazz" is quite different from '"selling off controlling stake in its imaging sensor business".

Here's one analysis I found:



See also: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-towerjazz-panasonic-idUSBRE9BJ08E20131220

The analysis you found is largely correctly. Basically in lay man terms , Panasonic entered into a Joint venture to create a JV company whereby Towerjazz owns 51% of the JV company while Panasonic owns 49%. Meanwhile, Pany will also transfer the assets of its 3 Fabs to the new JV company.

Since, the article did not mention anything about purchase consideration, one can imagine that as part of the JV deal, Towerjazz will inject funding into the JV business to run the 3 Fabs , and thereafter share the outputs and profits.

At the end of the day, Pany no longer owns 51% of their three fabs, Towerjazz will either have control or joint control of the 3 fabs , and Pany has to share profits arising made from the three fabs. In the business world, such arrangements are known as farming out which is a form of selling off parts of the business to get cash , funding to operate in the future.