Sony tips $645 million into Olympus medical imaging deal
updated 08:13 am EDT, Fri September 28, 2012
Sony and Olympus partner on new medical imaging technologies
Sony and Olympus have entered into a partnership (pdf) with Sony investing $645 million in the scandal-wracked Olympus Corporation. The new ‘business alliance and capital alliance’ will see Sony seek to gain a foothold in the medical imaging segment currently dominated by Olympus, which supplies most of the world’s endoscopes. Olympus was forced into looking for partners after the biggest corporate accounting scandal in Japanese history revealed that the company was short of operating cash.
Sony plans to share its 3D and 4K resolution technologies with Olympus in the development of the next generation of medical imaging equipment. “As part of our strategic initiatives announced in April 2012, we are aggressively pursuing the growth of our medical business with the aim of developing it into a key pillar of our overall business portfolio,” said Sony CEO and president Kaz Hirai in a prepared statement.
Although by-passing the real reason for the tie-up, Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa said that the new partnership will bring “greater business synergy in [its] core business domains of medical imaging.” With a view to further highlight the positives for Olympus in the forced hook-up, Sasa argued that the new partnership will allow Olympus to develop new products that it could not have on its own.
