Alexander wrote:
>Good subject for thought I think.
>I have a "feeling" that eventualy camera manufacturers will merge, as is seen
>in the bank industry. Even Mercedes and Chrysler merged! Maybe its their only
>way to survive...
>I wonder who Oly will go with???
>Any opinions?
I have heard, that in 70 percent of the merging happenings in industry,
there is not the "synergie effect" the companies have expected. Further I
have heard, that if companies get larger (because of merging for example),
there are more products left, which can be produced by smaller companies,
which deliver those products to the great concerns. Recently I have seen a
documentation about the production of bicycle chains. I was amazed how
difficult the production of such a simple product is. I believe, that no
joint-stock company would produce bicycle chains for the price they
typically cost, as Olympus don't produce any SLR-body for a reasonable
price. Instead, Olympus has assigned Cosina (a smaller company) to produce
a SLR for it. Further there was merging in the optical industry like the
Leica Group, a group out of very different companies like Leica, American
Optical, Bausch and Lomb, Zett and so on. To the Zeiss Stiftung, there also
belong very different companies. With electron microscopes, there exists a
partnership between Zeiss and Leica, both companies sell "Leo" electron
microscopes. (Do you remember Topcon, they offered a very expensive and
very good SLR system and are often said to be out of business today
(according to the "photo press"), but in fact, they produce electron
microscopes and equipment for opticians.) Another curious example is Rollei
(with Schneider-Kreuznach), which was saved by a manager (Mandermann) and
recently sold to Samsung. It will be interesting to see what happens with
Rollei products and prices under Samsung's direction.
Matthias
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