Olympus’s camera business has struggled in recent years as more people use smartphones to take photos.
Photo: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg NewsOlympus Corp. is getting out of the camera business after 84 years to focus on medical devices.
The Tokyo company, which has been under pressure from U.S. shareholder ValueAct Capital to improve shareholder returns, said Wednesday that it planned to sell its camera unit to private-equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc. It didn’t disclose financial details. The companies aim to complete their deal by the end of the year.
Olympus’s camera business, which dates back to 1936, has struggled in recent years as more people use smartphones to take photos. The camera segment has lost money for the past three fiscal years, and revenue in the year ended March 31 shrank to just over $400 million, a fraction of the company’s total. Its main products are medical-imaging devices such as endoscopes.
Olympus said June 17 that all its units have seen revenue drop sharply during the coronavirus pandemic. At the bottom in April, camera-division revenue was falling by more than half compared with a year earlier, it said.
San Francisco-based ValueAct said in 2018 it had taken a stake of more than 5% in Olympus. The next year, ValueAct partner Robert Hale joined Olympus’s board.
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Olympus to Exit Camera Business After 84 Years - Wall Street Journal
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