Olympus Corp. will soon enter into final negotiations with Sony Corp. for a capital tie-up with an injection of 50 billion yen ($623 million), according to sources, with Panasonic Corp. withdrawing from consideration.
The sources said Olympus will give Sony exclusive negotiating rights at an early date.
In talks with Panasonic on June 20, Olympus said it would accept a 50 billion yen investment and proposed specifics for a linkup in the digital camera division and other conditions, the sources said.
But according to the sources, Panasonic later decided that it could not accept the conditions offered by Olympus, such as not allowing more investments from Panasonic in the future.
Panasonic believed it would not achieve results it was projecting if its stake in Olympus was limited to between 10 percent and 20 percent.
With a capital and business alliance with Sony, Olympus would further sharpen its technological edge for medical endoscopes--an area where Olympus commands 70 percent of the global market--and strive to improve the performance of its money-losing digital camera operation.
Olympus’ capital adequacy ratio dropped to 4.6 percent at the end of March this year because of its loss-concealing scam revealed in late 2011 by Michael Woodford, the company's chief executive, who was later sacked and reached an out-of-court settlement for unfair dismissal.
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