What's happening with Leica and Sinar?

[traveller]

During the Photokina Leica and Jenoptik proudly presented a deal. Leica bought 51% of the Sinar shares from Jenoptik and they announced a technical cooperation because Jenoptik develops digital backs for the Sinar. IMO a smart move because Jenoptik also has a cooperation with Kodak/Leaf so developing costs for digital sensors could be shared.

Today Jenoptik announced that the deal is cancelled and that they want a compensation for suffered losses because Leica is not fulfilling their part of the contract. So when everybody was thinking Leica is fit again (financially) they could be endangered again.

I don't own a Leica (yet) but I had hoped that Leica would be in a safe harbour at least for some years.......

 

[Ben Z]

So when everybody was thinking Leica is fit again (financially) they could be endangered again.

I don't own a Leica (yet) but I had hoped that Leica would be in a safe harbour at least for some years.......

We all hoped that but it's hard for sensible people not to wonder if there are enough people willing to put a shimmering red filter costing $120 on the front of every lens of a $5000 camera. Sure there are still people in line to buy one, but the unanswered question is, will there be enough to break even, let alone profit. Jenoptik has to be looking at Leica's decisions and actions surrounding the M8 and it looks like they don't have confidence to hand them the reins of Sinar.

 

[shenkerian]

Are you sure this is a bad thing for Leica? Investors had been punishing the stock for the last couple weeks, but they're pushing it up over 7% today on the news.

 

[Ben Z]

Perhaps investors are happy that Leica isn't taking on more debt, and will be able to concentrate their finances into remodelling the M8 so it doesn't need filters and so more people will buy it.

 

[clintock]

Sinar is medium format anyway, right?
http://www.zoomatra.de/2006/sinar/sinar.html

 

[Trius]

Yes, Sinar is MF & LF. The value, IMO, was diversifying adding/solidifying a channel for lens development and sales, but more importantly higher profit margin sales for the digital backs. Add to that, spin-offs and efficiencies in sensor technology that could benefit the small format sector. Maybe Leica saw something in Jenoptik that they didn't like once they looked deeper. Since Jenoptik did the electronics for the M8 ... who knows.

 

[boron9]

The following link may be useful, although it appears from the introductory remark, it may also be dated.

http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=347844

 

[ZeissFan]

On the other hand, Carl Zeiss AG has reported very strong annual results.

Employees received a bonus of a maximum 1,750 euros, and money allotted for R&D rose to 254 million euros (up from 230 million euros in 2005).

Camera optics contribute a very small part to the company's overall financial performance.

The announcement that seems to indicate a cancellation of the deal between Leica and Jenoptik comes as a surprise to me. In general today, by the time mergers are jointly announced, most are more or less a done deal. I wonder what happened.

 

[IGMeanwell]

I wonder if the initial troubles of the M8 may have had a small hand in this decision?

Maybe Jenoptik was going to be the primary company to develop full frame sensors for the M ... once they found out all the difficulties of shoving a full frame sensor in a rangefinder... well they probably saw the economic difficulty

as is they are in a niche end of digital photography

 

[Trius]

"Full frame sensor"? Don't know if that was ever on the roadmap for the Mx. In any event Jenoptik didn't develop the M8 sensor; it was Kodak.