Tokyo, Japan—In the next phase of scandal-ridden Olympus Corporation’s future, it seems that Sony and Fujifilm are the leading contenders for an equity stake, sources told Reuters. However, the well-respected Japanese business journal, Diamond Weekly, reports that Sony and Olympus are about to agree on an alliance.
According to Diamond Weekly, “Olympus’s top management has been consulting with various electronics companies but chose Sony as the best partner to help get it out of one the biggest corporate scandals in Japanese history.” Sources added that Olympus will hold a press conference this week to announce the agreement with Sony.
Possible business partners narrowed for Olympus, with foreign firms and some domestic companies such as Panasonic seen as “unlikely partners,” sources told Reuters. “It looks like the contenders will be domestic players,” said a source close to one of Olympus’s banks.
“Sony, which has relatively little experience in the healthcare sector, supplies image sensors to Olympus and is considered keen to tap into its lucrative business in diagnostic endoscopes, where it holds a 70% global market share,” according to Reuters.
Additionally, Diamond Weekly reported that Sony’s CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, was given the green light for an equity deal.
Fujifilm, which holds about a 10% share of the diagnostic endoscope market, has said it is willing to support Olympus if asked and that Japan’s antimonopoly rules “would not be insurmountable, noting that the combined share in the overall endoscope market, including surgical endoscopes and related products, would not be unreasonable,” reported Reuters.
In addition, private equity firm TPG Capital has said it will invest $1 billion in Olympus in a joint deal with one of its suitors, a source told Reuters.
Despite these reports, Shuichi Takayama, the new Olympus president, has said any decision on an equity partnership would wait until the installation of new management following an April shareholders’ meeting.
