Austrians! The Kaufman Family, Who Are They?

[Olsen]

Since they are defacto the new owners of Leica I tried to look them up on the Forbes list of all the billionnairs of the world. Only three austrians were listed, - which I think is a good sign for Austria, but no Kaufmans. They arn't rich enough to be listed.

I wonder if any of the austrians here on RFF could tell us who the new Leica owners are, and what their reputation are in the austrian business community. Now that Leica no longer is a stock listed 'public' company they don't have to report to the public about economical matters.

We are now all in the hands of the Kaufmans regarding the future of Leica, a camera brand that means a lot to a lot of us. It would be fine if any austrians here could try to keep us posted about the Kaufman's and their business dealings, and what ever tidbits that might occure in austrian press.

Are there any austrians here that know anything about the new Leica owners?

 

[Ash]

Hoffman? isn't that this guy?

 

[kbg32]

That's David Hasselhoff.

 

[estepan99]

Hi!

Maybey you find something when you search for Kaufmann instead of Kaufman.

Apart from that I regret, although being Austrian I too never have heard of that special family. But I´m not very interested in economics and therefor am no specialist in knowing rich families.

But I hope they plan something special for that great brand!

Stephan

 

[MichaelB]

I just searched for "socrates privatstiftung", "leica" and "kaufmann". what came up was not much but they seem to have sold a 30% share of a papermanufaturer called "Frantschach" for 320 million euros. some of the money went into leica. they also own some real estate stuff which is not specified. hope this will help you.