Pentax is expected to gain through merging its low-growth digital camera and lenses businesses with Hoya, helping it fend off rising competition.
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June 2, 2007: Pentax has finally agreed to a takeover offer by Hoya worth up to about 105 billion Yen, which will make Pentax a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hoya. Pentax management had originally resisted a stock-swap offer last year from Hoya, but under pressure from shareholders, the latest announcement has ended more than a month of wrangling. Hoya has offered 770 Yen each for the Pentax shares, and plans to start the tender offer to shareholders in early June, with the goal of making Pentax a wholly owned unit. The acquisition will place Hoya in a leadership position in the medical and optical equipment market through Pentax’s strength in endoscopes, intraocular lenses, medical accessories and ceramics. Pentax is expected to gain through merging its low-growth digital camera and lenses businesses with Hoya, helping it fend off rising competition. The new tender offer will be a friendly one. Both companies will continue to use their existing brands but Pentax’s board will step down and be replaced by a new board consisting of Nobuaki Tanishima (currently Pentax’s head of corporate development), Kou Torigoe (currently running Pentax’s camera division), Yuji Nishiura (managing director of AlixPartners Asia LLC), Hidenao Toyoshima (former head of the Fukuoka High Public Prosecutor’s Office), Yukio Ohara (president of Hoya’s computer network unit), and George Souther (head of Hoya’s legal department). Nobuaki Tanishima will be appointed the new president of Pentax from 27 June. |
