Olympus in deep trouble?

[george_mazzetti1]

<p>It appears as though Olympus is in deep financial DooDoo. Some of the past officers hid huge losses on investments which may break the company. Nikon or Canon should buy them out.</p>

<p>gmazz</p>

[leslie_cheung]

<p>I just wonder how this doodoo will affect the lens and camera dept... </p>

[frode_inge_helland]

<p>Being the most innovative company in the buisness is risky. But being innovative in accounting even more. Sad story.<br>

Nevertheless, I'm dreaming of a happy end.</p>

[newmanuk]

Leslie Just another cover up!

[ilkka]

<p>I don't think they are in deep financial doo doo as much as in legal one. It now seems that they made some trading losses and instead of admitting to them, they hid them within unusually large consulting fees. The company still paid up and has been making profits every year apart from 2009, when many other companies made a loss as well. So todays financial result has not been affected as such. Sure, they would have been more profitable without these losses, and it is still an open question what else have they been hiding. But this is not the same as Enron, or UBS where a trader hid losses and the management then found out about them and now needs to find cash to pay up. Those Olympus losses have already been paid. The share price has come down so much that it is cheap to buy now, so certainly a possible takeover target.</p>

[alan_krantz]

<p>Base on the current information made public I feel sad for the workers (esp the creative engineers) and I feel the execs have done them a great dishonor.</p>

[mukul_dube]

<p>Alan, are not workers (all kinds) always the first to suffer?</p>

[harold_gough]

<p>A compay's accounts can give any story they chose. Until we have an international standard (ISO?) for publishing company accounts they will remain fiction. I was once employed by a company which brought forward, from the next quarter, profits, which had not been made yet, to boost the current ear's profits. That didn't help the profits for the following year and they ended up paying no dividend.</p>

[henryp]

<blockquote>

<p>I don't think they are in deep financial doo doo as much as in legal one.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>They're in quite a bit of trouble financially. From <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/business/global/at-olympus-scandal-and-rising-calls-for-a-purge.html">Shares Dive as Olympus Scrambles for Answers</a>:<br>

<br /> The company’s stock fell 29 percent on Tuesday, and 20 percent more in trading on Wednesday in Japan, to hit a new low. Shareholders said they were worried that the company could be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which could threaten access to financing. Since mid-October, the company’s market value has plunged by 70 percent.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The company still paid up and has been making profits every year apart from 2009...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>On Tuesday, an outside committee appointed by Olympus concluded that more than $1 billion in merger payouts had been used to hide years of losses on investments, perhaps dating to the 1990s.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>The only reason it hasn't dropped more is because the Nikkei index halted trading after it dropped the maximum allowed each day. The max drop limit was smaller on Wed because the value was lower.</p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>It dropped another 17% today which was exactly 100 yen. Probably another automatic halt to trading. That's down over 80% in less than a month. Olympus announced that they may not release their earnings report on time. The Nikkei index said if they don't release it by Dec 15 they will be delisted.</p>

[colin carron]

<p>...and if they are delisted they will find it difficult to borrow....<br>

Olympus importance is not their camera production but the fact they have pretty much cornered the market in endoscopes for medical and engineering uses.</p>

[harold_gough]

<p>All this talk of endoscopes suggests it was an inside job :)</p>

[ken_max__parks]

<p><strong>Olympus dumped by major shareholder as Japan steps up probe</strong></p>

<p id="yui_3_3_0_24_1321130352263299">SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund said on Saturday it has sold most of its holdings of Olympus Corp <7733.T> on concern about wrongdoing, the first major shareholder to show it had lost confidence in the scandal-hit Japanese medical device and camera maker.</p>

<p id="yui_3_3_0_24_1321130352263292">Japanese authorities are investigating Olympus after the company admitted this week that it hid investment losses for decades using funds from M&A payments. Media reports on Saturday said police and regulators were joining forces in a rare collaborative effort to examine the cover-up.</p>

<p id="yui_3_3_0_24_1321130352263613">GIC , which is the acronym for Government of Singapore Investment Corp, was the 10th biggest shareholder in Olympus, with 2.17 percent as of the end of March, according to the latest Olympus annual report.</p>

<p id="yui_3_3_0_24_1321130352263636">"GIC disposed of almost all of its investments on first suspicion of possible wrongdoing in Olympus," the Singapore fund said in a statement.<br>

GIC added it had only an insignificant holding under a portfolio managed by an external fund manager. It said the majority of its investment was made in the midst of the global financial crisis.<br>

http://news.yahoo.com/olympus-dumped-major-shareholder-japan-steps-probe-072820523.html</p>