Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/17

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Subject: [Leica] What did Hermes pay for Leica in 2002?
From: daniel.ridings at edd.uio.no (Daniel Ridings)
Date: Thu Feb 17 22:47:43 2005
References: <15526993.1108688789393.JavaMail.root@bert.psp.pas.earthlink.net>

It's always a balancing act. I don't know German law but I suspect it's
something like Swedish law.

10% gives you a place on the board (that's ok, particularly if you are
Cosina and just want to keep tabs on things)

20% Gives you the same BUT (and it is a big BUT) obligates you to fill up
the kitty when there is a need for fresh capital.

19% is a popular way to go.

So basically, Leica could be sold for 1 dollar. But whoever bought it
would have to pitch in with all of the capital that a company needs in
order to stay afloat. If this is known to be a lot, then the price is kept
down. There is nothing in the announcement that hints that Hermes is
wanting to pull out. The mention of getting more capital is necessary
since the very reason for the announcement is that capital has fallen
below a certain threshold.

So Hermes could sell for one dollar. That would liberate them from pumping
in more captial (that's always worth something) and from getting involved
with the tedious process of liquidation/bankruptcy. But the purchasing
part would have a big task in front of it (and would know it when the
price is kept so low).

If Ilford could make it (and it looks like it) then Leica probably can
too. Big changes, sure. But that won't hurt. The luxury market was just
too small and there are too man nifty gadgets (GPS, modern telephones with
built in televisions, stolen art) to compete with the money being raked
off various budgets.

Daniel

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 mak@teleport.com wrote:

> Wasn;t it in the $20M range and the prospects for Leica success have 
> declined since then...
>
> --Original Message-----
> From: Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au>
> Sent: Feb 17, 2005 4:09 PM
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica Solms LUG LHSA Buyout
>
> I'd agree, we want influence not work !!!
>
> On 18/02/2005, at 10:57 AM, Richard wrote:
>
> > Nah, we don't need to buy the whole company. Should 10% or more give
> > us enough clout to effect company changes? So now we are down to $4000
> > each :-)
> >
> > At 03:06 PM 2/17/2005, Marc James Small wrote:
> >> Simply lots of bucks.  We are a group of roughly 2,500 persons.  The
> >> purchase price would be probably in the range of $100 million.  So,
> >> if each
> >> of us kicked in, say, $40,000, the company would be ours.
> >>
> >> So, where do we send our $40,000?  And what do we get for it?
> >>
> >> Marc
> >
> > // richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly,
> > please use richard at imagecraft.com)
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
> >
> Alastair
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

In reply to: Message from mak at teleport.com (mak@teleport.com) ([Leica] What did Hermes pay for Leica in 2002?)