Is Olympus dead?

Some big shakeups for Olympus

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/business...ympus.html?_r=1

I wonder which other Japanese camera companies could have the same issues?

Some big shakeups for Olympus

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/business...ympus.html?_r=1

I wonder which other Japanese camera companies could have the same issues?

I think not. Olympus was very active in securities and currency trading and when they lost a bunch of money they had to hide the losses. Neither Canon nor Nikon (at least according to their annual reports) do much trading and neither have made acquisitions that didn't fit in any way to their business so I think this is Olympus specific.

Bill

If Olympus is insolvent its product line will be purchased by someone else. It is too good a line.

If Olympus is insolvent its product line will be purchased by someone else. It is too good a line.

Perhaps.

The most successful segment of Olympus' business has nothing to do with camera. It's possible that the camera division could die.

It was near death before the digital revolution.

It's funny...I'd read for some time that m4:3rds was doing gangbuster business in Japan, etc. yet we always heard how Olympus photo division was losing money. (That was when m4:3rds didn't have some of the newer competition...I know now SONY NEX and other mirrorless equivalents are competing heavily.)

Makes me wonder how much of the 'failure' of the camera division to make money was these weird acquisition charges and the money shuffling around to cover them. Ah well, I'm sold out of all Oly gear so no personal stake anymore. (My dad has my E-30, lenses, and flash, but he's not likely to want to upgrade / switch in the forseeable future either.)