Thought this news item today was of general interest:
>Dow Jones Business News
>Konica, Minolta Confirm In Talks Over Operations Merger
>Monday January 6, 7:44 pm ET
>
>TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Konica Corp. (J.KNC or 4902) and Minolta Corp. (J.MNO or
>7753) are in talks aimed at an integration of their operations, spokesmen at
>both companies confirmed Tuesday. Local media reported that the two Japanese
>office equipment and camera makers will merge under a holding company this
>summer in a bid to ride out stiff competition with rivals such as Canon Inc.
>( CANNY or 7751). The spokesmen said specific details, such as when and how
>to merge operations, have yet to be decided. The Tokyo Stock Exchange
>suspended trading in both Konica and Minolta shares until 0116 GMT. Konica
>plans to transform into a holding company structure April 1. The media
>reports said Minolta will join that structure around summer. Konica and
>Minolta already have a tie in the area of research and development of
>copiers, formed April 2000. In the precision machinery industry covering
>digital camera and office automation equipment, competition is expected to
>intensify globally. But the combined sales of Konica and Minolta lag well
>behind those of rivals such as Canon and Ricoh Co. (J.RCH or 7752). Should
>the operation merger go through, annual sales at the new entity would likely
>slightly exceed Y1 trillion, compared with industry leader Canon's sales of
>nearly Y3 trillion for the business year ended December 2001. For the
>business year ended March 2002, Konica posted group sales of Y539.57
>billion, while Minolta recorded sales of Y510.86 billion. -Tokyo Bureau, Dow
>Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929
>
>
>
> Dow Jones Newswires
> 01-06-03 1944ET
