netexpress
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Registered: Oct 20, 2004
Total Posts: 951
Country: United States
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 Re: Photokina RUMOR - Alternate | |
Lotusm50 wrote:
netexpress wrote:
I was able to confirm that Kyocera/Contax is active in photo lithography development via trade journals. That's not surprising for a company of their size and scope. But I haven't found anything yet about a plan to produce medium format sensors before they folded. However, I'm not sure that information would be public.
References, references! What journals, what issues? Do you have copies of articles? While it has been clear for a while that they have been developing CCD sensors for cell phone cameras, I heard nothing about them producing sensors for still cameras -- either P&S digicams, fullframe or medium format. As far as I know they weren't even using their own sensors in their P&S's. It is inconceivable that the investment required for them to produce MF sensors could ever have been recouped through Contax 645 sales -- no matter how rosy their forecasts might have been. With 3 or 4 different options to source these sensors externally it would have been a difficult sales to the money guys internally. It's hard for me to see them taking that high risk investment course, and then taking the extermely conservative, risk-averse decision to fold Contax. I'd love to see the articles/references on this as it might help me unravel Kyocera's actions over the past few years and figure out what, exactly, they were thinking.
Kyocera seems like a hard company to research. Not only do they not supply thorough annual financial statements like US Corporations do to the SEC but they also have what they call an amebic corporate structure where the company is split into entirely autonomous units that are allowed to compete with one another. This makes information very opaque.
They have a lot of information on their global WWW site:
http://global.kyocera.com/
Under their product section they list lithography and also both CCD and CMOS sensors.
Their Investor relation section has a lot of information:
http://global.kyocera.com/ir/financial/annual_r.html
But unlike US corporations that are filled with information about competitive risks and footnotes about sales of assets these look like glossy sales brochures. But if you want to read all their statements for the past five years, which is what I generally do, you may find what you are looking for. The Contax group was under the “Optical Instruments Group” which was part of the “Equipment Group” which made up about 50% of total revenue. So far doing some reading it seems clear they lost a lot of money on Contax and they made the proper strategic decision to cut out the consumer optical products and instead focus on the profitable industrial applications of optical products. So I wouldn’t look for them to do anything with Contax in the future themselves.
I think if you really want to get to the bottom of this your best bet is to call their investor relations department. That is how I’ve gotten the most information in the past on topics like this. You could ask them for complete financials and disposition of assets related to the optical group circa 2004 – 2005.
Restructuring activities
In fiscal 2005, Kyocera recorded ¥7,369 million ($69 million) of
restructuring costs which consisted of ¥6,866 million ($64
million) related to the structural reform of Optical Equipment
Group and ¥503 million ($5 million) related to the reform of
Telecommunications Equipment Group.
Structural reform in Optical Equipment Group was focused
on downsizing the camera business. Since the acquisition of
Yashica Co., Ltd. in 1983, Kyocera has advanced its optical
instruments business centered on the camera business under
the CONTAX, KYOCERA and YASHICA brands. With the shift
from still to digital cameras in the camera market in 2004,
Kyocera pushed ahead with the production and sale of digital
cameras best suited to consumer needs. The digital camera
market has expanded considerably on a global scale, however,
and because the optical instruments business was unable to
achieve sufficient cost reductions to counter the ensuing
intense cost competition with competitors, it was forced into a
difficult business situation. As a result of extensive
investigation into how to effectively utilize management
resources under the policies of “business selection and
concentration” and “high-value-added diversification,” Kyocera
decided to significantly downsize Optical Equipment Group in
fiscal 2005.
Business Outlook and Strategy
New emphasis on optical components to
improve profitability rapidly
Kyocera’s main challenge in this segment is
to improve profitability as quickly as possible
by concentrating on areas in which we
can best generate value. In line with this
goal, Kyocera has decided to shift this segment’s
business resources away from consumer
products. In effectively exiting the
consumer camera market, Kyocera will
concentrate its accumulated optical technologies
to expand its business as a supplier
of optical components.
During fiscal 2005, Kyocera combined
its lens, surface-mount-device and module
assembly technologies to begin producing
and supplying a 2-megapixel optical module
with a 2x optical zoom lens for mobile
phone handsets.
In fiscal 2006, Kyocera plans to
enhance its lineup of high-megapixel optical
modules for mobile phone handsets
and develop new optical components for
digital projectors and rear-projection televisions.
Production of optical modules is
also being shifted to China to yield more
cost-competitive products that can help
improve profitability rapidly.
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