[rollei_list] Re: Nikon and Mitsubishi
- From: Marc James Small <msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 19:40:01 -0500
At 04:05 PM 1/2/06 -0800, Peter K. wrote:
>Yes, I understand what you are saying. But that brings up a question then.
>If what you say is true, and let's say Nikon goes bankrupt, do the other
>companies bail them out?
In 1991, Daimler-Benz advised Mercedes they were on their own: that is,
they either had to break even or shut down, a similar position to that
handed down to Zeiss Ikon in early 1972 by the Zeiss Foundation.
Similarly, at around that same time, Mitsubishi told Nikon the same thing.
Nikon pulled out, barely, though it is still not a great market-leader for
the Mitsubishi Vertical Monopoly.
Had Nikon not been able to break even or better, Mitsubishi would have let
them go under. In other words, Mitsubishi was no longer going to pay their
tab.
The situation is similar but not identical with Canon, which is more
tightly integrated, with the Canon Camera dudes being an integral part of
the Canon concern -- Canon, having broken off from Mitsubishi in the later
1940's is exempt from a lot of the antitrust matters which afflict
Mitsubishi. Canon makes its raw money out of sales for digital and optical
systems for office and industrial machines, and this is a real cash cow.
Canon hasn't made a loss in a lot of years but it could afford to do so for
quite a while before the overall Canon concern would become worried.
Mitsubishi is far larger than is Canon, but their profit margin is much
smaller, so they have to pay close attention to their P&L statement.
Zeiss made its money from the later 1800's into the 1990's from scientific,
medical, industrial, and military optics. Sports optics and cameras were a
side-show maintained for the glamor effect. By the late 1950's, the only
thing bringing money into Zeiss Ikon were the point-'n'-shoot Contessas and
the Contaflex SLR's, and the burden of the Contarex simply swamped their
balance sheet. The Zeiss Foundation pulled the plug twelve years or so
after the introduction of the Contarex and the timing was controlled by the
retirement of the head of Zeiss, Heinz Küppenbender, who had started out as
the Head of Contax back after the Nazis ran off the fellow who conceived of
the camera system. The Zeiss Sports Optics wasn't at risk as they always
break even or better, as is also the case with Leica Sports Optics: there
is ALWAYS a market for quality spotting scopes and binoculars, and, yes, I
am awash in Zeiss glasses and own a Leitz APO-Televid with a full set of
oculars, and a grand scope it is. (Nikon and Pentax have found the same to
be true: Nikon specializes in mid-quality sport optics, while Pentax makes
some gear directly competitive with the products of Leica and Zeiss and, of
course, at the same price-point.)
In the 1990's, that "peace dividend" brought about by the end of the Cold
War damned Zeiss, as military contracts dried up, especially for such
really fancy items as integrated radar/optical gunsights and submarine
periscopes. And Zeiss' hap-handedness at getting into night vision only
made the red ink bleed all over the place. This was when Zeiss got its
lensworks into hawking lenses for digital p&s cameras, with salvation for
the concern -- Zeiss sold as many lenses to Sony between 1996 and 2004 for
use on its digital cameras as all versions of Zeiss had produced between
1846 and 1996.
Now, Zeiss is back in the military end of things and seems to have gotten
night vision under control; some friends of mine at the ITT Night Vision
labs across town grumble about Zeiss, but, finally, Zeiss managed to beat
ITT out of some hefty contracts in recent years, so they seem to be doing
something right.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505
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