In case you missed it Olympus america has a rebates program:

Look close at the picture! Do you recognize something special? The stranger has the in his hands! ;)

Source: photographyblog

It is not an Olympus or Panasonic news but I believe this news will be interesting for everyone who loves photography. I always liked Rollei cameras! Few months ago the Franke & Heidecke GmbH (the producer of the Rollei cameras and lenses) declared the insolvency. Now a new company, the DHW Photo GmbH wants to resurrect the camera production!
According to available information, the DHW will resume production on an area of 2000 square meters, spread over three floors, with 20 coworkers.
That’s good news!
I wish you good luck!

Original article at photoscala.de: Read in german or read the google english translation.

UPDATE: the contact form problem has been solved. You can send me messages if you want!

Thanks!

Old message:

“Dear readers!
We have some technical problem with Aksimet which blocks our form. It doesn’t work since 24 hours and your messages sent through our form are probably lost. If you want to contact me use write me at 43rumors@gmail.com.
I will let you know when the form will work again.
Sorry
Ale“

Sounds good:
“Olympus, which earns about 65 percent of its sales abroad, surged 9.2 percent to 2,900 yen, its highest in a year and the largest gain on the Nikkei 225. The company may report April- September operating profit of 28 billion yen ($306 million), 47 percent more than its forecast, Nikkei English News said.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ab5OoDYhwbLI

MISTRAL75 added following interesting information:

“Olympus’s financial results for the second 2009-2010 quarter (June-September) have been published since (on 6th November):

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/ir/financial/pdf/n091106aE_n.pdf

Group half year operating income actually amounted to 28.5 billion yen, down 11.2 percent from 2008-09, and quarterly operating income to 17.2 million yen, up 17.9 percent compared to the same quarter last year. These results are indeed better than the analysts’ expectations.

As for the “Imaging” business unit (= cameras and lenses), sales were down 42.9 percent for the first quarter (April-June) and down 31.6 percent for the second quarter (July-September), each time compared to the same quarter one year before. Operating income tumbled 96.2 percent for the first quarter and “only” 31.6 percent for the second quarter.

So the group as a whole is in a much better condition than the camera business.”

Thanks Mistral!

Panasonic financial results are available here: http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en091030-5/en091030-5.html