Canon has acquired Toshiba Medical Systems. Several companies had participated in the second round of bidding including Canon, Fujifilm Holdings, and Konica Minolta U.K. together with Permira Investment Fund. Fujifilm Holdings was already believed to have won the race.
The bid is for approximately 700 billion yen ($6.21 billion/5.64 billion Euro). It is believed that since both companies have similar operations, the antitrust proceedings should be relatively smooth.
Canon was flying under the radar the last few years with low-key communication. One will have to see how these two completely different cultures will integrate as it seems quite likely that both companies will continue operating as separate entities.
Toshiba's primary objective of selling this unit is to rebuild its finances and invest in growth segments. Also, Toshiba has faced some challenges which it aims to recover from with this move. The company hopes to raise some cash following a $1.3 billion accounting scandal.
For Canon, this is a new priority field and would provide another source of revenue that could complement its camera and office equipment markets. Canon already offers medical products such as retinal cameras, flat-panel digital radiography detectors and fixed and portable DR, radiography/flouroscopy and DR retrofit systems but with this acquisition, the company can now expand into diagnostic imaging equipment such as CT scans and MRI machines.
The acquisition agreement is expected to be finalised by March 18. Projections tell that global medical equipment market will increase spend within the next 7 years by 25%, reaching about $1 trillion in 2021.
Source: Nikkei Asian Review
Image Credit: Toshiba Medical
Latest Articles
Canon, Toshiba, takeover
Toshiba has selected Canon as the winning bidder to acquire Toshiba Medical Systems, a 100 % subsidiary.
