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Last weekend, an administrator for a Personal View forum claimed ‘closure is near’ for Olympus’ camera division, spurring a number of rumors that Olympus would shut down within a year. Since then, Olympus’ has issued a statement to Sina Finance News (translated) that suggests these rumors are little more than hearsay.
The post was made by a Personal View adminitrator who goes under the username Vitaliy_Kiselev. It included two images of Olympus’ latest financial presentation and said underneath that Olympus’ camera division is in ‘total instability’ with various Olympus employee’s ‘running and looking for new positions.’
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| A screenshot of the forum post made on the Personal View forums on November 9, 2019. |
Vitaliy_Kiselev went on to say in the post that ‘rumors and talks’ suggest Olympus’ camera division will shutter some time between ‘January-March,’ presumably this upcoming year, and ends by claiming there are talks ‘that [Olympus’] development team and some equipment can be picked either by Sony or Samsung.’
In response to the aforementioned post, Chinese financial publication Sina Finance News asked Olympus to comment on the rumors to confirm or deny their accuracy. Olympus’ official response was (machine-translated):
‘The image business has always been the driving force of technology, including imaging technology and mass production technology, for medical and The science field has made tremendous contributions. As stated in the new business strategy, since the imaging business and the scientific business are important businesses supporting the company, we will continue to work on the improvement of profitability and efficiency in these two business areas.’
Sina Finance News followed up to further question what the plan was for Olympus’ imaging and scientific business considering there was no specific mention of either of these divisions in its most recent financial presentation material. In response, Olympus said (machine-translated):
Detailed information about these business plans can be found in the next quarter’s earnings.
While Olympus’ answers are vague, the statements suggest that Olympus is continuing efforts to keep its imaging division alive. It’s possible these statements aren’t in contention with the forum post made by Vitaliy_Kiselev, but it does seem much less damning than the initial reports suggest.
We have contacted Olympus regarding these rumors and will update this article with a statement if provided.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)