Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Konica Minolta Not Planning Counterbid for Oce

According to the media, Konica Minolta, has no intention of making a counter bid for Dutch printer maker Oce. A spokesperson for Konica Minolta told a press agency yesterday it had considered acquiring Oce but it abandoned the plan and is for the moment not planning an offer for Oce.

On Monday, Canon, the Japanese printer maker, made an offer for Oce. The total value of the offer for all outstanding shares in Oce at EUR 8.6 per share, is EUR 730M, as reported earlie on this blog.

In my opinion, a counter offer would have meant too much premium for Konica/Minolta on top of what Canon is already willing to pay. Also, Konica itself suffers from a merger hang-over with Minolta. Acquiring a Dutch firm with a unique culture, high-end production presence and a direct sales covergae model would have paused significant risks. However, from now on any supplier other than Ricoh, Xerox, Canon and HP should expect to be a takeover candidate or risks being shut down as a money loosing internal division of a larger conglomerate. Times will be increasingly tough in the Office & Production markets.


Add to Technorati Favorites

No comments: