Olympus Woodford vs Managment saga continues…
Olympus Tokyo released a statement that can be read here: http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/ir/tes/pdf/nr111019.pdf . In short, Olympus says that while the facts MR. woodford are presenting are true “his report contains a large amount of material that is based on supposition and speculation and the company believes its content is at variance with the facts and open to misinterpretation’“. And: “Olympus confirmed that Woodford ‘remains a director of the company at this point in time”.
And here is the very serious part of the story: According to Amateur Photographer: “It could be several weeks before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) decides whether or not to launch an official investigation into claims made by former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford. ”
And the very very very serious part is that Olympus shares value is still falling down and down and down: http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/7733:JP
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Comment from Sindar: Acquisitions at Olympus Scrutinized
By ...- Comment from Sindar: More fuel for the fire.
Hiroko Tabuchi...
Comment from ckb: Woodford knew he was stuck between a roc...
Comment from Mag: Raist3d,
It's STILL JUST BUSINESS - d...
DonTom
8 months ago |But the company offers no explanation at all, even though several major shareholders are demanding one! There will be mass resignations from the board very soon, but hopefully this won’t satisfy the Japanese or UK authorities. Bad times for Olympus employees.
Mr. Reeee
8 months ago |Resignations? NAH!
Seppuku!
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |The top two shareholders, representing about 14% of the outstanding shares yesterday publicly asked some very specific questions of Olympus, none of which were answered by Olympus’ press release. Two other large shareholders have joined that call. There may be as much as 20% of the shareholders asking some very damning questions of the board at this point.
Meanwhile: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-olympus-adviser-idUSTRE79K0WD20111021.
ckb
8 months ago |I feel bad for Mrs. Sagawa since her husband knew someone would come asking questions and he is conveniently traveling. Being a cynical and judgmental person I assume he is enjoying the beach in the Cayman Islands hiding from any investigator and the press. I assume his Lawyer advised him that he does not have to answer questions if he cannot be found.
If he would help Olympus Boards’ case he would be talking. Of course we could all hope that he is conferring with Olympus Lawyers and Auditors helping them understand the consulting fees on the transactions. However, I would think that would have happened already to try to stop the decline of the stock price.
What is curious is that there has been no rumor of what possible change could occur at Olympus to improve the situation. No possible new leaders have been identified. Could it be so bad that no one wants to touch the job?
Eno
8 months ago |Don’t worry, Olympus is just fine. As far as I can tell from the Japanese media and some insider information, the problem was clearly Woodford, and now he is gone. This saga is basically Olympus vs Wall Street.
ckb
8 months ago |I would believe that if the stock price/confidence in the management had not fallen like a rock. No company is fine when they lose half their value. As your value decreases so does your ability to borrow and your cash on hand dries up. You cannot run a company with no money.
ckb
8 months ago |Credit risk model from Thomson Reuters Starmine that assigns a credit rating based in part on equity market volatility and the Olympus’s market value applied a “BB”-rating to the company, a junk rating and the lowest among the company’s competitors.
A little less than fine.
Raist3d
8 months ago |Eno, I would like to know what you smoke to be in such denial, honestly.
frosti7
8 months ago |Hope that panasonic would want to buy olympus and build a more prosumer range of cameras, much like google bought motorolla
lnqe-M
8 months ago |Hope more on Google bought Olympus.
example; GH-3 in Olympus style
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |Olympus is mostly a medical equipment company these days, and has a dominant share in the endoscope market. A more likely scenario is that Olympus will be snapped up by someone who wants the medical business, which would leave the camera side as either a spin-out sale, a fix-it job, or close it down option. If bought by a Japanese company, the latter would likely not be considered. If bought by an outside company, especially a hedge fund type operation, it would.
But I don’t think Olympus will change hands. The have too much debt, too many non-focused pieces, and it’s worth more than the shares currently sell for, so it would likely require a strong offer well above the current share price. On the other hand, Olympus throws off tons of cash flow (which is one reason why US$1.3 billion can just be squandered as it seems it has).
infinity jr.
8 months ago |Goodbye, mr. woodford! go do your whining somewhere else! Olympus is better off without you and your stupid western-style “management”. Instead of telling you to get on the bus, they should’ve thrown you under it.
Mr. Woodford’s plan to “help” Olypus was to peddle “cheapened” products at high prices, and slash jobs. What a dumba$$. I bet the average worker is glad woodford and his bloated executive salary are gone.
Olympus needs to change course, but Woodford’s way would only make things worse.
John
8 months ago |> I bet the average worker is glad
> woodford and his bloated executive
> salary are gone.
I think they are still paying him
Perhaps Woodford’s approach wasn’t good (I don’t know), but throwing away $700M can’t be better.
calxn
8 months ago |Funny how few people side with your opinion on this matter. Corruption is corruption, and it eventually shows up in the product. I have no idea what his plans were for, but you criticize his bloated exec salary but gives a pass on 2 years’ profits disappearing to unknown entities. Hypocrisy much? Or is it undying fanboyism? To even Oly owners, these allegations explains a lot about their pricing and lack of progress.
Esa Tuunanen
8 months ago |Woodford hasn’t have time as CEO to do a single thing to hurt for example imaging division but that’s been done plenty by this same top management (surely deciding budget and goals of divisions) for couple years by shrinking product range to one camera!
With various class bodies of E-system it was possible to suggest them as alternative to Canikon and others for people looking system cameras.
Now instead of expanding mirrorless product range (when it was new market area with little competition) to cover various camera classes they have only iterations of one bottom of the range big pocket P&S whose sensor is still almost same as three years ago!
Having nothing to sell is good way to loose sales and market share of Olympus in western world has dropped low in last years.
Mr. Reeee
8 months ago |+10
@che & James… I agree. Buying some shares of Olympus at rock-bottom prices isn’t a bad idea. If you can afford to take the chance. Olympus may be in bad shape now, but I doubt they’d fold completely. It’s more likely they’ll rebound once all this gets sorted out.
whatthe!
8 months ago |Goodbye, mr. woodford! go do your whining somewhere else!
How deluded and fanboy-koolaid-drinking can you be to think Woodford is posting to a rumors site?
flash
8 months ago |You are right.
Woody and to some extent Kikukawa just wanted to delete, not sell it off, the Imaging division, he already started by having the Medical division “merge” the best imaging divisions plant to it. For example: http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/ir/tes/pdf/nr110520.pdf This is getting ready for selling or just deleting the Imaging Division?
Is Olympus corrupt? I think probably not. At most there maybe some individuals that are. Unfortanetly, the likely suspects are at the top. The Jury is still out on that in my mind. What we see now is a dispute of accounting methods (with the inference of possible fraud) and speculation of stock prices (a lot of people make money on speculation). As of yet no one has been accused of fraud by anyone other then the peanut gallery, in fact Woody has gone out of his way out of his way in stating that he knows of no fraud (to cover his fat ass I am sure)
I think they have been misguided in understanding the changes Digital Camera market in the past, but the first quarter this fiscal year showed a remarkable turnaround to profitability. This was the same time that Woody made his statement about selling it. He had access to sales information at the time that would of showed this turnaround. That makes his statement even more stark, as his real intent seem to have been to take the best assets of the camera division and just sell the name and limited assets, sort of what IBM did with there think pad division and Lenovo.
Olympus is the leader in its Medical market by far, and make some exceptional products that have and will advance medical science and treatment. Many companies around the would love to have the medical division. Not so want the Imaging Division.
Maybe the real argument and culture differences between them was whether to sell a hollowed out Imaging Division to a Japanese firm like Fujifilm which is a competitor in the medical field or to a Chinese firm which is not.
Agrivar
8 months ago |@infinity
Whether you agree with wood ford or not, the key thing here seems to be the corruption at Olympus. That is the big problem. As CEO, he could not close a blind eye to this corruption.
che
8 months ago |I think you all forget Olympus is not just photo imaging company… and is more to it that meets the eye… i dont want to go into details as im not into making any presumptions into things that are not my field of expertise. But sold or not this is a good time to buy some shares ppl. Im serious…
che fool
8 months ago |Sure buddy. You go ahead and buy some stock. While you’re at it, pick up an E-5. Better yet, get 2. One for you and one for your delusion.
che
8 months ago |one time username… yeah…
James
8 months ago |“this is a good time to buy some shares ppl. Im serious”
Actually, despite the large falls already, this is still a good time to buy put options. I’m serious.
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |You guys need to learn how to read financials. Best guess is that Olympus shares are currently 50% undervalued to common tests. There was panic selling going on (still), just look at the volume levels.
Olympus has manageable debt (US$600m of it last I looked) and tremendous cash flow. The fact that they could piss away US$1.3 billion in a couple of years and still look like a viable company tells you just how mismanaged they are. If you were a hedge fund seeking return, you could buy Olympus at its current price, close all but the medical portion of the company, clean up its cost structure, and make a small fortune.
James
8 months ago |But with the current management looking to stay, the company is screwed – hence the share price continuing to fall…
Bryan Brunton
8 months ago |Wrong again Tom.
Olympus has 5 billion in debt.
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |Not sure where you get that number from. The last financial statement lists 703,383,000 yen in short and long term debt (including bonds). At current exchange rates, that’s US$9.3b. It appears that I was remembering the short term debt number (and at older conversion rates); my apologies.
But that number puts the purported US$1.3b in unexplained expenditures in light: just those two screwy deals represent giving away an amount that could have reduced their overall debt by 14%.
Simon
8 months ago |One important fact is that Mr. Woodford was not able to adapt to Japanese culture. Direct criticism of other company employees, even older, higher rank ones, is a no go there and even it there wouldn’t have been any corruption issues they would have fired him for this. A smart CEO would’ve found a way to reveal these things with other, less official methods.
Well, if there’s really that much corruption stuff going on, they would’ve fired him anyway.
If shares keep falling some competitor will buy Olympus, close all factories and get rid of a competitor.
What I don’t like is that he’s now pretending to be the hero western manager type of guy. He don’t think he had any serious or winning strategies for Olympus while he was there.
Boooo!
8 months ago |Oh please. He’s been in the company for 30 years and adapted quite well, which is why he was recently promoted and praised by everyone just three weeks ago.
Pete
8 months ago |Mr Woodford is just another example, that the power of individual persons is much to big in this world. too much money depends on the meaning of one megalomanic, in both direktions: Porsche, Mercedes had very much problems becouse of one, Deutsche Bank and others earn incredibly much money while they stick at nothing!
In every case, some will get millons or billions of $,€……and the most of us will have one more problem
Anon
8 months ago |Welcome to reality. Would you like to sit in the front row, or more to the back?
By the way, it’s not always a bad thing, but it is reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA
Stupig
8 months ago |Woodford didn’t create the problem. He isn’t even the last straw.
Dummy00001
8 months ago |>> It could be several weeks before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) decides whether or not to launch an official investigation into claims made by former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford.
Question. Olympus is a public company, HQed in Japan. But stocks are traded internationally, include UK. Does that automatically makes the UK authorities involved?
Did anybody hear any reaction from the Japanese authorities?
If UK authorities confirm the fraud, what they could possibly do to the Japanese company?
Eno
8 months ago |Jap? Are you discriminating Japanese?
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |The Gyrus transaction was mostly handled by the UK subsidiary of Olympus. The payments were through the subsidiary. Thus, it’s absolute going get UK scrutiny now.
The three other companies that were acquired and are part of this scandal were in Japan. Japan’s SESC would be looking at that.
flash
8 months ago |Who ran the UK division when this happened? Woody? and he stated he first became aware of problems in this transaction by a July magazine article? As questions about this transaction were even in the yearly audit report at the time. His “lack of knowledge” is culpable IMHO.
The other three small companies purchase are a pretty minor event; yes they were speculative purchases and were called that at the time. This is more of putting a lot shit up and seeing what sticks. This method is used at times to try to distract investigators from real issues; maybe by Woody to delay the outcome of an investigation. Why? to manipulate the stock price or just the pain.
While I do not think any of these purchase were good, I can not think of Woody as an angle. I feel he purposely has been pulling assets out of the Imaging Division, bad mouth the division in public when he knew they had turned and started to make a profit. There are other rumors, about he wanted to slash R and D ; which is Olympus real strength in all its divisions. On the other hand, I would not trust Tsuyoshi Kikukawa to run my card game club’s treasury. So in my opinion one down and one to go.
I feel bad for the over 32 thousand Olympus employees who work very hard to make fine products. This has to be very unsettling on them. I maybe a little prejudices as I have a friend who was diagnosed by the latest Olympus equipment and according to his Dr survived partly, because of the latest improvement, made me almost get over their dropping the OM series.
ckb
8 months ago |Woody was in charge and did not agree with the buy of Gyrus based on valuation of the company and products. The Olympus Board made the decision and Woody was unaware of the consulting payments. Woody thought that they may have paid a little too much for Gyrus without taking into account the extra consulting fee paid for the company.
Woody was put in charge to make money. Olympus makes money in Medical and Industrial products that are related. He was betting his money on the core of the company and wanted to grow that part of the company. I assume that Imaging and other unrelated companies were being looked at to sell and invest back into the core of the company. Being sentimental will leave you with underperforming divisions that require more time and investment than the divisions that are making money.
Speculative purchases usually have something to do with your business core. Otherwise you have to bring in extra management knowledgeable in the business to guide it. Hedge funds speculate readily because they are formed that way, with specific financial and management objectives. Companies like Olympus are not agile enough to accomplish that with no specific finacial and management direction based on what is known about the three small purchases that have lost almost all value.
I liked the Kikukawa comment however I am not sure the next CEO will not be another Woodford since that is who the shareholders seem to have had more faith in. When did Mr. Woodford bad mouth the division? I think the division stemed some of the losses however I doubt it was profitable.
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |Yeah. In light of Bryan’s comment to me above, I went back and looked at the last year’s worth of financial statements. It seems clear that there are operational/management issues. The medical stuff should be churning the corporate profit even higher (and keeping it from overall losses), but it isn’t.
The imaging division broke into profitability last quarter at 370m yen, or ~US$4.5 at the time (not sure about the quarter they’re about to report, but I would expect even better numbers given some of the product intros). I’d be curious as to how they’re booking income, though. It’s clear they had a huge inventory hang, which is now being addressed by instant rebates on things that were “already sold” (to dealers).
flash
8 months ago |CKB,
“When did Mr. Woodford bad mouth the division?”
When he publicly stated the Imaging Division would be gone if it did not turn a profit. And when he did not want the Imaging Division Cameras to be used on the Medical Image devices.
Corporate leadership should not act as a Financial Analyst fully, if everyone of them did there would be no tech. corporations left in 20 years. Maximizing return on investment at the cost of real R and D is fatal for tech companies and seems to happen again and again.
The purchase of the three small companies was bad IMHO, but I am a trained and tested Financial Analyst, go figure. The cosmetic company, a plastic container company and a garbage (recycling) company. I almost could justify Olympus desire in the first two, but the last one scares me. The people who remove trash in some places are not to nice, but very organized.
There may of been a Japanese corporate responsible thing that made Olympus feel that they most promote new hard industry at the time. In the west, governments invest a lot start-up industries directly or by tax code, this is not the way it is everywhere. I know diversification of corporations was going on in Japan in the last decade, sort of like the 70s in the US. I thought it was a dismal failure in the US, as many of the companies that made products I bought fell apart. Look at Harley Davidson under AMF, in which the motorcycles literally fell apart. I use to talk at length to some of the largest corporate CEOs of the time and they could make a very convincing arguments why they needed to do it, market fluctuation and consistent stock value etc. The real reason, I think, was their stock to jump up and their personal survival.
stoneinapond
8 months ago |Tsk, tsk. Someone got caught with a hand in the cookie jar. As to the UK fraud squad being involved, some parts of the transactions in question involved a UK based company, so yes, they have the authority to investigate.
Jonathan
8 months ago |Hello everybody,
Mr Woodford behavior betrays what Olympus (as a global company) have had in mind and intention about the photo division.
Sometimes, a company use to name a new director in their own unhealthy and non profitable division in order to get a rid of it and sell it at a lower price to an other greed company. (like Panasonic for example)
So now, it seems logical that Mr woodford thankless mission was to deliberately sink the photo division and that’s why he was the only non japanese ceo named at the top of the photo division. Do you think a Japanese CEO could do that ? Obviously no, it would be a heartbreak and a shame for a Japanese CEO.
ckb
8 months ago |Hello Johnny,
You make no sense. Please use some facts. Mr. Woodford was the CEO of Olympus. Imaging is a small part of the company. The medical and industrial products are very closely matched and profit center for the company. He did nothing specifically to the Imaging Division. He is questioning strange transactions that have cost the company almost 2 Billion dollars in the past 4 years. Most CEO’s can do a lot with that type of cash to build the core business if they are not hamstrung by previous management’s boondoggles.
Your engrish betrays your origin.
Jonathan
8 months ago |The fact is that Olympus shares value is still falling down.
So that, it will be the best moment to justify to split the imaging division apart from the rest of the company.
“The medical and industrial products are very closely matched and profit center for the company.” => I’ve never said the opposite.
“He did nothing specifically to the Imaging Division.” => He was the ceo of the medical division. Then he went to the imaging division in order to “rescue” it.
“He is questioning strange transactions that have cost the company almost 2 Billion dollars in the past 4 years.” => Corruption is a global concern, not specifically for Olympuss. So why did he need to dig the dirt ? For the Sake of Olympus “strenght & Honnor” ? Personnal Revenge ?
“Your engrish betrays your origin.” => My origin is not your concern.
ckb
8 months ago |I thought he went from the Medical Division to Corporate President and then CEO. Did he have a stop at Imaging? Do you have a reference?
I will admit while he was President of Olympus when the Imaging Division was demerged into a wholly owned separate entity Olympus Imaging Corporation. I also assume this was done to make it easier to sell the Olympus Imaging Corporation or merge with another Company.
I will give you a simple problem. You are in charge of a Corporation and have 8 Billion dollars of Debt. Your managers increase your debt to 10 billion dollars without anything to show for their efforts. Banks increase your rates and tighten rules on your ability to borrow money because your increased debt. Your company cash flow is good but you have to service more debt. Your company could be in much better shape if management was on the ball. You were brought in to increase the profit of the company. You can based on your comments:
A) Quit it’s a cultural thing
B) Live with it even though your company is constrained
C) Change management and reduce debt even though unpopular
D) Make a stink and drive the stock price down
I have no idea what your answer would be but logically I would do C.
Mr. Woodford might not have had to cut at R&D budgets or had to try to find other areas to cut if his debt was 20% less.
I really hope you do not like that part of every yen you spend on an Olympus product part the yen goes paying off managements mistakes.
Mag
8 months ago |May be Woodford shouldn’t take it so personal. It’s just business. He should know that best. When the Board of the company in which somebody like Woodford deems that the CEO is underperforming – then it behooves the company to do what’s best for the company = he should know that! Why is he taking it so personally? OK, so he is incompetent as a Leader, and may be that is what they proved by putting him back into the Director position, that he’s just not that good being at the top = some people just aren’t. But the fact that he’s taking it to task to moan and groan about it on and on, proves the Board’s point even further! Doesn’t he get that? Is he looking to get fired? And if he does, I presume he’ll take Olympus to court to try to sue them? He should be happy at the fact that they didn’t kick him out of the company right away = doesn’t he realize that he still has a job with the company right now? He just wants to leave, eh, but he can’t walk away by himself so he’s waiting for Olympus to fire him, so he can get back them. How pathetic. But if Olympus doesn’t kick him out, then he is still there, but is he going to continue to perform poorly? Well if he does continue to perform poorly as a Director, then he’s giving them even more grounds to fire him, and he won’t have any legs to stand on, since it was his own fault for performing poorly and misunderstanding Olympus.
He’s looking more and more pathetic as the days progress. It’s so obvious that he’s incompetent as a Leader, and he’s pissed off like a pedantic child for being exposed of that fact. Aw. Go cry to mommy. Loser.
Raist3d
8 months ago |How denialist ridiculous your post is. He was with Olympus for 30 years and had nothing but praise from the board- until he uncovered the shady accounting….
- Raist
flash
8 months ago |And he did for them. Corporate management life is a mutual admiration group till its not. The praises that Woodford and Kikukawa for each other was sickly sweet. I remember, what my Mom use to say about a couple newlyweds that acted that way, something about it not being really real and that it would not last. She was right about the newlyweds, and it seems Woodford and Kikukawa.
Mag
8 months ago |Raist3d,
It’s STILL JUST BUSINESS – don’t you see? Woodford threw away 30 years of good work – in an instant. He got greedy, he got powermad, and forgot what put him there in the first place.
What did he when he first got to the top? Question how his own company had been operating for the 30 years he’d been there! He was there the whole time the supposed “fakery” was going on! That means he was also partaking in the same money from which Olympus was supposedly illegally earning money! He’s just not that smart, in the end, is he? No wonder they pulled him right back down to “Director.”
As I said, he should be happy he still has a job in the same company! Unbelievable how ungrateful he is. Doesn’t he get that either? I guess not.
But it’s still business. He was willing to supposedly “shake up” all those people with whom he’d been working over the 30 years he’d been with the company – and basically told them that they weren’t his friends after all, now that he’s CEO. Doh! They put him right back in his place, didn’t they? And brave and honest Olympus, came right out and said that he was about to ruin the family with his shenanigans by saying that he misunderstood the Olympus’ family. Kind, warm-hearted Olympus. It felt bad for one its children in Woodford and and are letring him hang around in hopes that he’ll get it. But he sure proved he’s no leader, has no respect for himself nor for his company personnel. He thought he could act like Gordon Gekko, roll some heads and get away with it. Dufus.
ckb
7 months ago |Woodford knew he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He found the dirty laundry piling up at his door, and knew he could either try to clean it up or let it be until it really stunk. The reason they made him CEO was to sharpen the focus of the company and cut the fat because management up to this point was unwilling to do such. The shareholders wanted this thats why they approved his promotion. He had a mandate and tried to follow it through. He followed the Japanese way of asking questions about these transactions and independent people came up with answers and theories which basically he reported. His biggest mistake was not to get some of the company directors on his side before he was fired. CEO’s don’t have friends just allies.
Olympus is still going to have to pay him off handsomely so he will not have to work for the rest of his life. I would like to be rich and retired at 55.
physguy88
8 months ago |The people attacking Woodford are not getting this thing.
The reality is this:
Olympus is a company with $5.7 billion in debt.
In 2008, its CEO (who is now the Chairman of the Board) directed $700 million dollars in cash payments to a Cayman Islands shell company that then disappeared off the face of the earth. Months later, for no explicable reason, the company paid another $900 million to acquire 3 companies that are unrelated to its existing business and have minimal value.
This resulted in a total loss of $1.3 billion for share holders.
When the new CEO (Woodford) tried to investigate and reform, the entire board conspired to remove him.
Woodford has now brought evidence of criminal activity to the UK and Japanese governments, and fears for his personal safety.
This is not a guy who left because of some cultural misunderstanding or personality conflict. This is not a guy whining about being fired. This is a guy who stumbled into a billion dollar criminal conspiracy like something out of a Hollywood thriller and is now fighting for his safety and the fate of the company he’s worked at for 30 years.
Does anyone here think that Olympus could have any future at all with a management that is stealing a billion dollars for year from a company that’s already $5 billion dollars in debt?
Thom Hogan
8 months ago |> stumbled into a billion dollar criminal conspiracy
I’ll leave judgment on the “criminal” aspect until we know more. It’s only one of the possible explanations. At this point, just as likely is simply complete mismanagement. As I’ve written elsewhere, I don’t think it makes a difference as to why it occurred. Whether it’s civil (shareholder suit and removal of board) or criminal (government agency suit and arrest of board) makes not a bit of difference. The number is big enough that there needs to be a full disclosure made, and there’s a 99% chance it’s going to be one or the other, especially given the stonewalling.
Raist3d
8 months ago |It’s amazing how some are trying to blame Woodford instead of looking at *the real problem*. As you say the company couldn’t continue operating that way.
Nic Walmsley
8 months ago |As someone who cares about Olympus imaging division, this all feels pretty dire.
We’ve got an ex CEO who probably wanted to focus on industrials and medical, and was moving some of the best parts of imaging into the industrial/medical divisions, perhaps with a plan to sell off consumer imaging.
We’ve got a board complicit in either gross negligence or worse, either way wasting huge sums of cash that could be used to advance imaging (among other things).
We’ve got the share price very close to the level that an aggressive takeover could be on the cards. Imaging would not come off well in such a scenario.
Either way, there’s no one on the horizon likely to promote Olympus Imaging. Just as they were starting to put together something very special.
Hope I’m wrong!!!
flash
8 months ago |Olympus is mostly owned by the big Financial Players (over 70%) in Japan, http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/ir/annualreport/2011/pdf/11.pdf ,not to mention how much Olympus has borrowed from them,
I am hoping that this will keep it out of harms way long for at least a little while, and if it is sold it will go to a good Japanese company; not that I do not like their US competitors, but they will not be able to deal with the image division. The likely purchasers for the whole company would be (in my untrained mind, but they all have medical unit and have been trying to expand them recently) in order of likelihood would be Fujifilm, Hoyla, Cannon and Nikon.
1. Fujifilm I would be happy. Olympus people will still be able to innovate and make product I hope.
2. Hoya I would be little sad, but Olympus cameras will be like Pentex was when it was there and still be some what independent, but not allowed to innovate truly. Maybe they would spin the Imaging Division off.
3. Canon I would be mixed, like their cameras but their cameras do not like me at times. Never should of dropped that lens down the cliff at Machu Picchu, since then me with a Canon are cursed. The former Olympus employees would fit in, and maybe Cannon will allow the Pen to continue with a much better distribution worldwide.
4. Nikon I would be a little sad. I have used a lot of Nikon products. Great camera company that has provide fantastic service, but I do not think Olympus Imaging will survive or their former allowed to innovate in Nikon.
Panasonic (they have medical also) while it would be interested would not have the cash right now I think, also it would mean we would not see any new product in the US until it was for sell for maybe 5 or 6 months. I can not imagine that Samsung or a US firm would be able to get any of this pie.
I do however still think Olympus will survive. When Woody was let go even the three outside directors voted against him. The current Olympus financial independent auditors were aware of the transaction. It is required, at least in my audit fields to address the last audits.
Why would Olympus purchase these companies? to get into debt so they could not be bought up. Corporate finance is about survival not return on investment sometimes. What I expect is that most of the money Olympus owes is to the Japanese financial institutions which are its stockholders.
We should know a lot more by next week what is happening, there is a public speech by Tsuyoshi Kikukawa.
And Olympus should name the independent review committee members (I think it will be a good committee the major stockholders are demanding it).
Maybe principle in the advisory firm maybe interviewed.
The UK Serious Fraud may even announce if it will investigate, they might not yet investigate depending on standard for starting an investigation is. It might even be a juristic issue that stops them or they could have a high standard that requires prima facie (on its face) evidence of malfeasance. Going by their name they work in Fraud, which would requires intent. Dam I miss the chase, wish I was working on this (till I start putting in to many hours).
I would give a lot more credit to the UK serious fraud unit, and even the independent review set-up by Olympus (depending on who is appointed); then any newspaper or video interview. There are a lot of real tough questions that need some real integrator who are fluent in both Finance and Law. The problem Olympus made for them self was when they reviewed the problem internally a couple of years ago in response to their financial audit, there was a need for outside review.
I was planning on some Olympus mft stuff, I will hold off for a couple of weeks.
Sindar
7 months ago |More fuel for the fire.
Hiroko Tabuchi from the New York Times has written an article that details some interesting coincidences relating to the questionable M&A’s by Olympus.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/business/global/acquisitions-at-olympus-scrutinized.html?ref=business
There is definitely something fishy going on and it doesn’t look good. Michael Woodford was definitely on to something.
Sindar
Sindar
7 months ago |Acquisitions at Olympus Scrutinized
By HIROKO TABUCHI (New York Times)
Published: October 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/business/global/acquisitions-at-olympus-scrutinized.html?_r=1&ref=business