Konica Minolta ends camera era; Sony gets digital SLR
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-20 10:00

Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. said Thursday it will withdraw from the camera business at the end of March and sell its digital single-lens reflex camera division to Sony Corp.

The withdrawal will lead the Konica Minolta group to reduce its workforce by more than 10 percent, or by 3,700 employees, by September 2007, it said.

The company, which was founded through a merger between Konica Corp. and Minolta Co. in 2003, also said Vice President Yoshikatsu Ota, 64, will replace Fumio Iwai, 66, as president on April 1. Iwai will become board chairman.

After pulling out from the camera business, Konica Minolta will focus on technologies that don't cater directly to consumers, including optics and display devices, it said.

Details of the agreement with Sony were not disclosed. Konica Minolta and Sony have developed single-lens reflex digital cameras together since July.

Konica Minolta spokeswoman Yuko Ogiso said Sony will take a minority stake in a plant in Malaysia that produces cameras, and other details of the asset transfer are still being worked out.

Amid the fast shift from film cameras to digital cameras, the camera maker has concluded that its advanced optical technologies alone will not enable it to compete with digital camera makers, an industry source said.

The announcement comes a week after Nikon unveiled plans to stop selling most of its film cameras to focus on hot-selling digital models.