Further to the "merger" plan for that Hoya would actually swallow Pentax, which was officially announced by both corporations in last December, recently there have been various news from different sources including Asahi, Reuters and Bloomberg starting from April 8 that majority of Pentax's Board of Directors are actually opposing the "proposal", which is now known to be proposed by the resigned CEO, Fumio Urano, solely, as the sources quote (from insider sources).
Urano, the ex-CEO and his sub-ordinate, who was also one of the ("automatic"?) members in the Board of Directors, have both (been) stepped down owing to the rift with the Board on the issue.
However, from what the news articles/sources disclose, it is really a big surprise for such a *supposed to be* well thought and planned merger plan, which *should* be a result of extensive and intensive negotiations (between Hoya and Pentax) and internal communications (within Pentax), would die in the embryo like this case, just because indeed the above assumed activities seem have never taken any place!(?)
In fact, similar case(s) have rarely been seen and heard in the past for other mergers.
Whilst I myself have never been a true supporter on the "merger" as I had pointed out the obvious cons and primitive problems to Pentax of the "merger" on day one in my last Blog entry about the merger news, I feel sad again on this recent happened case just because the future of Pentax is now even more unclear and unforeseeable, which must be imposing very bad effects and impacts to the company, and of course, will undoubtedly hinder the progresses of future product developmentes for such a big (unhealthy) earthquake within the company.
Indeed, the sudden drops in the stock prices of both Pentax and Hoya have reflected the worries of the investors.
Nevertheless, I hope Pentax can recover and stand-by again soonest and everything are to be back on the right tracks again! My best wishes..