Someone had been right.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

Indeed maybe we should pay more attention to your insights.

JIP has been acquiring insolvent businesses in Japan since 2002, including one from Olympus before, Olympus mobile phone business. JIP is not a large pocket investor, it's a small (US$150m) equity investment partner

Absolutely no development or new producs are expected. But some Chinese firms could buy Zuiko brand and also do 1-2 m43 cheap cameras without mechanical shutters.

One Japanese guy I talked explained it such - such procedure allows Japanese top managers who actually destroyed their departments to "save face", they also let new company to fire all long time workers in very bad fasion.

Olympus UK, one of the last PRs made by few remaining people in all EU

Today the Olympus Imaging Business has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan Industrial Partners, Inc. (JIP). According to the MOU, both companies are entering into further discussions about the potential transfer of Olympus’ long-standing imaging business to JIP by the end of 2020.

JIP is a strong investment fund with a track record of success and has maximised the growth of many brands. JIP will use the innovative technologies and solid brand position of Olympus within the market, while also improving the profit structure of Olympus’s imaging business.

We understand you may have many questions, all of which we will work to answer in the upcoming weeks. We ask for your patience: we believe this is the right step to preserve our brand’s legacy, the products, and the value of our technology. Olympus sees this potential transfer as an opportunity to enable our imaging business to grow and delight both longtime and new photography enthusiasts. Olympus and JIP will continue discussions, and we are committed to providing full transparency about our intentions as the plans solidify.

We are grateful to all our customers for their loyalty and support for our products, and their passion for photography. During the ongoing discussions, Olympus Imaging will operate with business as usual: we will continue to work on innovative initiatives for our customers and we will launch new products as planned.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64075758

Hoping that Olympus Camera will come up with lots of new and exciting developments, as some have voiced here, is wishful thinking. It will be a slow (or perhaps in the current state of the market a rather fast) decline to death. If you are heavily invested in the system and you rely on the resale value of your equipment to buy new ones, I would get out asap. However, if you just enjoy the system in its current state, and you don't care about the resale value, I would look for good deals to compliment your current equipment, but I would steer clear of problematic equipment that might need a lot of service (e,g, 14-42 EZ lens with its problematic zoom mechanism, E-M5 III with it breaking of the bottom plate etc...)

@Vitaliy.....so what's your theory why they sold it to someone who'll obviously sell it for scrap, rather than an entity that would attempt to salvage it's technology ? Also what's the deal with that rumor of a russian site registering a new camera ?

Raver bizzare talk of people who have no understanding of economics and Olympus situation

I don't know a lot about JIP; they seem like a fairly generic private equity firm, with rather scattershot investments. They were formed for this sort of "carve-out" deal, taking parts of existing companies independent. My concern is that the carve-outs that they do are just that: They're not becoming part of something bigger, but rather are just chopped down to whatever will make them profitable as standalone businesses.

I do think there's potential for the Olympus Imaging line to become profitable if they trim the deadwood from their lineup, and I think they can continue to manufacture their existing and near-term portfolio, but I worry a bit about their ability to support all the R&D Olympus has traditionally invested in things like cutting-edge IS and their truly excellent optical designs.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2020/06/25/can-olympus-thrive-after-the-sale-madavors-photo-editors-talk-it-through

Tragedy of photo industry that amazing people in it are very narrow minded and for years ignored real life situation and unable to talk to real people who do not support position of old pro herd.

I don't know a lot about JIP; they seem like a fairly generic private equity firm, with rather scattershot investments. They were formed for this sort of "carve-out" deal, taking parts of existing companies independent. My concern is that the carve-outs that they do are just that: They're not becoming part of something bigger, but rather are just chopped down to whatever will make them profitable as standalone businesses.

I do think there's potential for the Olympus Imaging line to become profitable if they trim the deadwood from their lineup, and I think they can continue to manufacture their existing and near-term portfolio, but I worry a bit about their ability to support all the R&D Olympus has traditionally invested in things like cutting-edge IS and their truly excellent optical designs.

'Bizarre' is the right word for this statement. Or maybe 'denial'.

Exactly. I mean all of this talk about 'saving' the Olympus line, 'niche' customers bases, etc. while the company's corpse is being stripped and sold right in front of their eyes...it is just a level of denial that is striking.

So if you actually read the Olympus press release it seems that the way forward is:

• First Oly will try to slim down the imaging section as much as possible until september 2020 (" structuring reforms").
• Then Oly will divest the imaging division to a new company ("company split or otherwise").
• This new company shares will be" transfered" to JIP after a not yet specified transaction amount before the end of the year. (The monetary value could be low (i.e. 1 USD) or negative where Oly actually pays JIP to accept the remaining liabilities.)

JIP does not seem to have the financials to operate the Oly imaging business with it's current losses for any time period. People who think Oly imaging will continue as before just under new ownership is in denial of the sad state of affairs. As per the press release it will already be substantially slimmed down before the end of september.

If there was any way of doing further "structuring reform" without seriously impacting operations or product portofolio there stand to reason that this would already been done during the last 3 years of reforms, i.e. "Despite all such efforts, Olympus’s Imaging business recorded operating losses for 3 consecutive fiscal years up to the term ended in March 2020. "

https://www.olympus-global.com/ir/data/announcement/2020/contents/ir00013.pdf

@AndrewReid_EOSHD .... IR is dead. Just because someone posts something on the internet doesn't mean it should be quoted. @Vitaliy predicted this even before corona. Add corona into the mix and there was no way Olympus and many other camera companies will survive. I predicted we'd be selling our used gear for more than we paid for it by the time this is over. In 2 years, when there's no treatment and their vaccine is a failure, most camera production lines will be closed. And it hasn't even really started. Not only in the USa but in europe as well, it's closing again. The world economy is on it's last leg. Suppliers will be dying like flies in most tech industries. You see camera gear companies making medical gear to stay afloat. When people don't have food, cameras are way down the chain of importance. Of course, everyone living off the crumbs try to put on a happyface, like IR, blind to the obvious tsunami that's approaching. The truth is...it's been a good tech run. Everybody should be happy with the gear their using already, although I even might be looking to pickup an em10mkiii for cheap, based mostly on your positive review.