Will KonicaMinolta now join the ranks of Xerox, Canon & Ricoh. Some think they are there already. If you haven't heard KonicaMinolta bought Danka USA today, just a few weeks after Ricoh announced that they had acquired Danka (Europe).Danka founded in 1977 in Tampa, Florida as and entrepreneurial venture. By 1986, Danka had become the leading office imaging distributor in the US. A year ago the stock traded for $1.37 per share and yesterday the stock was down to .22 cents a share. The total purchase price seems to be $240 million, hardware and supply sales for the last four quarters is about 200 million.
As an outsider looking in, KonicaMinolta products have been getting stronger and stronger, saturation of dealers and direct branches seems to be balanced. KonicaMinolta never cut their ties with Global, while Canon & Ricoh walked away. Not sure if they lost business here, I would tend to think that they gained business during the Xerox transition process. I now believe KonicaMinolta can be a major vendor for quite some time.
WOW, where does this leave the likes of Toshiba, HP and Canon? Will Toshiba do the same as Canon and Ricoh did with Global? Will HP fold and Canon also fold up their tents? My thoughts, HP will stay put if they can, Toshiba is continuing to buy dealerships in an attempt to maintain market share and I think they'll get out. But, what about Canon? They took quite a hit from Global, now Danka, and Ikon which was pretty much Canon is now three major product lines, Canon, Ricoh and Kyocera.
Its now a question of WHO has the bucks and the brawn to buy IKON! It will happen, it's just a question of when. Who can do? HP can, Canon can, I'm not too sure any of the players could pull off a purchase of IKON. Just a guess, but it would probably take at least 3 billion to pull it off.
As a 20 year employee of Danka/Kodak this looks to me like another way of to leave with his golden handshake and leave the employees holding the bag. If you have seen the company has stated thet it MIGHT give $.10 per share to its stock holders.
ReplyDeleteGood luck keeping the good employees that have stuck around. Rumor has it that a WORK STOPAGE is on the way.
Good for you danka employee. I too am a 20 plus year employee and none of us have sniffed a pay increase in 8 years. We have weak managers all the way up. We stick around for some reason. A good 3 day sick out would be great. How would you like that HERTZ
ReplyDeleteIt should also be mentioned that a couple weeks ago Konica Minolta made a pretty major agreement with Océ to parter in R&D and and manufacturing and to distribute each other's products.
ReplyDeleteWhat is supposed to happen to the current Danka contracts? The news says that KM will liquidate Danka.
Well - the rumor of Canon buying IKON has been around for a while - what word is coming out of the investment firm that holds a good number of shares?
ReplyDeleteAnd 3 billion? Probably right. How about selling bits off of IKON; like PS and FM?
Interesting...between Canon and HP I think Canon has a better match - but, IKON is pretty messed up internally as well.
I'm a 15 yr veteran in this industry and I love it. But, this greedy copier industry is falling apart. Everybody I know says the same thing. Too much competition! And the world wide web has made our customers instant experts? I went to a sales call the other day and client told me he has been researching his next copier for the last 12 months over the internet? I give up!!! Who needs me?
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