Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:50 PM 1/27/2000 EST, MGMcGough@aol.com wrote: > I am aware that the Swiss conglomerate (Schmeidheiny?) allowed the camera > division to separate from the mother company & float its own stock but isn't > Leica still owned by them? No. It was a management buy-out: the Leica management floated a loan and bought the camera and binocular division completely in 1992. Wild Leitz (owned by Schmidheiny) had previously been taken over by the British firm, Cambridge Instrument Company PLC (oddly enough, founded in 1881 by a son of Charles Darwin but now apparently primarily US owned). Schmidheiny might well have been part of the management buy-out, but I suspect it is a lot more hands-off than it might have been. Nikon and Canon are in slightly different postures. Nikon is part of the Mitsubishi group, and we can rail and fuster all day over exactly what this means, but it is a relationship somewhat tighter than US anti-trust laws would allow. Canon, on the other hand is a unitary group. Hence, when Canon runs short of cash, it is a bit easier for them to get additional cash than it is for Nikon. Nikon got burned, badly, a decade back when Mitsubishi apparently failed to underwrite their conversion to AF and Canon was able, with greater fiscal resources, to effectively force Nikon into a Number Two slot as the professional camera of choice. (Of course, Canon was making a superior product at the time, as well, which helped greatly.) Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!