84-Year-Old Olympus Withdraws from the Camera Industry

After more than a year of rumors and denials, it's finally official: The 84-year-old giant of the camera industry olympusbids farewell to the industry. In the statement made on the official website of the Japanese company, it was announced that it was planning to sell its camera division. Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) It was stated that a memorandum of understanding was signed with.

Olympus and JIP signed a legally binding agreement by September 30. Olympus in 2012 telecom unit JIP acquired Sony's PC brand in 2014. VAIOHe incorporated . Meanwhile, it is not yet clear at what price the agreement between Olympus and JIP will be completed.

Olympus sells camera unit to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP)

Founded in 1936, Olympus first entered the camera industry in 1939. Zuiko using his lens Semi-Olympus I entered the market by launching its model. Over the next decades, the company developed products that were good enough to rival Canon and Nikon in 1959. Olympus Pen And OM 35mm SLR It has launched many popular camera models, including.

But in recent years smartphone cameras The line between professional and professional cameras is increasingly blurred. olympus It put a lot of pressure on camera manufacturers, commercially speaking. As smartphone cameras improve, the well-established company to medical device production started to weigh in.

The 84-year-old well-established brand had started to focus on medical device production as smartphone cameras developed.

Olympus took some steps to increase its revenues in the digital camera market due to the rapid market contraction caused by the evolution of smartphones, by restructuring its production process and focusing on high value-added interchangeable lenses, but despite all these efforts, Olympus's camera business continued to make losses for three consecutive financial years until the period ending in March 2020.

While the financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed to the public olympusannounced that it will continue to operate with its current structure until the agreement enters into force and that new products planned for 2020 will be launched according to schedule.