Film and digital photography company Fujifilm has bought out Xerox, turning a 55-year-old joint venture between the two companies into a total takeover, with the American copier machine company ceding power to the Japanese photography powerhouse.
According to Reuters, the deal allows Fuji Xerox, the new name of what will be a Fujifilm subidiary, to save at least $1.7 billion in costs by 2022. That, unfortunately, means that approximately 10,000 jobs — a fifth of all employees — will be cut.
While Fujifilm is best known as a photography company — first as a traditional film and hardware company, and now as an innovator in digital photography gear and technology — the Fuji Xerox joint venture that has been in place in Japan since 1963 accounts for around half of Fujifilm’s profits. However, as businesses move to more paperless offices and are less reliant on photocopies, sales have slowed.
“Xerox became famous for its hardware — its copiers were so ubiquitous that the name Xerox became a verb,” notes Bloomberg Technology. “But it fell on hard times as Canon Inc. and Asian competitors eroded its dominance while email and other forms of electronic communications took over.”
Fujifilm is the latest company to join forces with a related business or otherwise diversify into more profitable areas. In 2011, Ricoh, which is best known for its business machines, bought Pentax (a legendary camera maker that was having financial difficulties) and hopes were high that this would save that brand. Top camera-maker Canon has a strong business machines division, including copiers and medical systems. Olympus, also an innovator, has both a digital camera and medical systems division. Panasonic’s still camera division is just a small part of its consumer electronics offerings. Even Leica has a medical devices division.
Today’s news was anticipated last month in this article, which made 5 digital photography predictions for 2018.
The current trend started in 2006 when electronics giant Sony bought out Konica Minolta, which itself was a merger between a troubled still photography company and a business machine maker. Sony has since built its photography brand into a strong competitor in the digital photography and video markets.
Nikon, which recently recaptured the number one position for full-frame DSLR sales, and Leica, which has successfully carved out a niche all its own with its unique M line of digital rangefinder cameras, are the last stand-alone camera companies remaining.
