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26-523: Pentax, founded in 1919 as a town workshop specializing in polishing eyeglass lenses, developed Japan's first single-lens reflex camera, the Asahiflex , in 1952. By 2006, Pentax's domestic market share in digital cameras had declined to 4%. In 2007, Pentax was acquired by Hoya and subsequently merged with the company the following year. In 2011, Hoya spun off the Pentax brand's digital camera business, which

52-416: A tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corporation (the target corporation) to tender their stock for sale at a specified price during a specified time, subject to the tendering of a minimum and maximum number of shares. In

78-422: A Hoya merger, on May 16 it was reported that Pentax had accepted "with conditions" a sweetened offer from Hoya, according to a source familiar with the matter. Pentax was under increasing pressure from its major shareholders, Sparx Asset Management in particular, to accept Hoya's bid. On August 6, 2007, Hoya completed a friendly public tender offer for Pentax and acquired 90.59% of the company. On August 14, 2007,

104-543: A deal the Nikkei business daily reported was worth about 10 billion yen ($ 124.2 million). On July 29, 2011, Hoya transferred its Pentax imaging systems business to a newly established subsidiary called Pentax Imaging Corporation. On October 1, 2011, Ricoh acquired all shares of Pentax Imaging Corp. and renamed the new subsidiary Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd. Hoya will continue to use the Pentax brand name for their medical related products such as endoscopes. On August 1, 2013,

130-572: A major exporter. The newly reborn industry had sold many of its cameras to the occupation forces (having had far more disposable income than the Japanese), which were well received. The Korean War saw a huge influx of journalists and photographers to the Far East , where they were impressed by lenses from companies such as Nikon and Canon for their Leica rangefinder cameras, and also by bodies by these and other companies to supplement and replace

156-576: A pre-war 6x6 roll film camera. The Asahiflex I had a non-interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, with a direct optical viewfinder for eye-level use. Like the Praktiflex the Asahiflex I did not have a returning mirror (which means the mirror will only be back to its initial position to redirect light to the viewfinder for composing and range finding work after the operators had wound the film) and shutter speeds from 1/20 to 1/500 and B. The camera used

182-479: A shop in the Toshima suburb of Tokyo , and began producing spectacle lenses (which it still manufactures). In 1938 it changed its name to Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. ( 旭光学工業株式会社 , Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha ) , and by this time it was also manufacturing camera/cine lenses. In the lead-up to World War II, Asahi Optical devoted much of its time to fulfilling military contracts for optical instruments. At

208-451: A tender offer, the bidder contacts shareholders directly; the directors of the company may or may not have endorsed the tender offer proposal. To induce the shareholders of the target company to sell, the acquirer's offer price is usually at a premium over the current market price of the target company's shares. For example, if a target corporation's stock was trading at $ 10 per share, an acquirer might offer $ 11.50 per share to shareholders on

234-555: The Samsung GX-1S and GX-1L , while the jointly developed (90% Pentax and 10% Samsung) Pentax K10D and K20D gave birth to the Samsung GX-10 and GX-20 respectively. Some Pentax lenses are also rebranded and sold as Samsung Schneider Kreuznach D-Xenon and D-Xenogon lenses for Samsung DSLRs. However, both brands are completely compatible with Pentax and Samsung DSLRs. In 2017, Samsung announced its departure of

260-639: The "Pentax" series was such that the business eventually renamed itself "Pentax Corporation" after the 35mm product line. Although the corporation ultimately merged into Hoya Corporation , it eventually was purchased by Ricoh , which continues to develop and market digital cameras under the Pentax brand. Currently, Pentax DSLRs are manufactured in Cebu , Philippines , while digital Pentax lenses are manufactured in Hanoi , Vietnam , under Pentax Ricoh Imaging Products. In June 17, 2024, Pentax launched their latest product,

286-535: The German Democratic Republic. Asahi's designers (Nobuyuki Yoshida and Ryohei Suzuki) were convinced of the inherent superiority of the SLR and so proceeded along these lines. This effort resulted in the Asahiflex I, which was also the first Japanese 35 mm SLR. Note: According to company information from Asahi Optical Co., however, the Asahiflex I is based on Mr. Matsumoto’s Kochmann Reflex-Korelle,

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312-646: The Leica and Contax cameras they were using. In 1952 Asahi Optical introduced its first camera, the Asahiflex (the first Japanese SLR using 35mm film). The name "Pentax" was originally a registered trademark of the East German VEB Zeiss Ikon (from " Pentaprism " and " Contax ") and acquired by the Asahi Optical company in 1957. Since then the company has been primarily known for its photographic products, distributed 35mm equipment under

338-626: The M37 screw mount. The Asahiflex I went through some minor modifications for flash use, resulting in the IA. Note: Both in the Praktiflex and the Asahiflex I the reflex mirror returned to its original position after taking your finger from the shutter release button. The Asahiflex IIB was released in 1954. With the IIB, a key advance was made, the quick-return mirror. It was the world's first SLR camera with an instant return mirror . The problem of mirror black-out

364-476: The Pentax 17. The Pentax 17 is a half-frame camera with a fixed zone focusing lens, a magnesium alloy body, and a price tag of $ 500. The Pentax 17 is the company's first film camera in over two decades. In 2005, Pentax Corporation partnered with Samsung to share work on camera technology and recapture market ground from Nikon and Canon. Pentax and Samsung subsequently released new DSLR siblings from this agreement. The Pentax *ist DS and *istDL2 also appeared as

390-784: The United States, under the Williams Act , codified in Section 13(d) and Section 14(d)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 , a bidder must file Schedule TO with the SEC upon commencement of the tender offer. Among the matters required to be disclosed in schedule TO are: (i) a term sheet which summarizes the material terms of the tender offer in plain English; (ii) the bidder's identity and background; and (iii)

416-587: The camera market. Hoya is focusing its main business on the following areas: information technology, eye care, life care, optics, imaging systems. Pentax’s main competitors include Canon , Nikon , Olympus , Panasonic , Sony (imaging/camera business), Fujifilm , Sangi, Kyocera (life care business). Asahi Pentax (all 35mm equipment) Pentax 6x7 (medium format 120 6x7cm equipment from 1969 to 1990) Pentax 67 (medium format 120 6x7cm equipment from 1990 to 1999) Honeywell Pentax (medium format 120 6x7cm equipment from 1969 to 1990) Asahiflex The Asahiflex

442-538: The company became a consolidated subsidiary of Hoya. On October 29, 2007, Hoya and Pentax announced that Pentax would merge with and into Hoya effective on March 31, 2008. Hoya closed the Pentax-owned factory in Tokyo , and moved all manufacturing facilities to Cebu , Philippines and Hanoi , Vietnam . On July 1, 2011, Hoya stated that it would sell its Pentax camera business to copier and printer maker Ricoh , in

468-493: The company name was changed to Ricoh Imaging Company Ltd. Asahi Optical Co Ltd is best known for Asahi Pentax 6x7 medium format film cameras and the later Pentax Corporation is best known for Pentax 67 medium format film cameras. In 1990 the Asahi Optical Co. Ltd renamed the sub-brand from "Pentax 6x7" to Pentax 67 . The company produced Pentax 67 cameras until 1999 and ceased trading in 2002. The success of

494-461: The condition that 51% of shareholders agree. Cash or securities may be offered to the target company's shareholders, although a tender offer in which securities are offered as consideration is generally referred to as an " exchange offer ". In the United States , tender offers are regulated by the Williams Act . SEC Regulation 14E also governs tender offers. It covers such matters as: In

520-487: The end of the war, Asahi Optical was disbanded by the occupying powers, being allowed to re-form in 1948. The company resumed its pre-war activities, manufacturing binoculars and consumer camera lenses for Konishiroku and Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō (later Konica and Minolta respectively). The period around 1950 marked the return of the Japanese photographic industry to the vigorous level of the late 1930s, and its emergence as

546-450: The field of endoscopes, intraocular lenses, surgical loupes, biocompatible ceramics, etc. It was speculated that Pentax's camera business could be sold off after the merger. A stock swap was to be completed by October 1, 2007, but the process was called off on April 11, 2007. Pentax president Fumio Urano resigned over the matter, with Takashi Watanuki taking over as president of Pentax. However, despite Watanuki's previously stated opposition to

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572-401: The name "Asahi Pentax" and medium format 120 6x7cm equipment under the sub brand "Pentax 6x7" (from 1969 to 1990) and "Pentax 67" (from 1990 to 1999). Equipment was exported to the United States from the 1950s until the mid-1970s; being imported by Honeywell Corporation and branded as "Heiland Pentax" and later "Honeywell Pentax". The company was renamed Pentax Corporation in 2002. It was one of

598-432: The world's largest optical companies, producing still cameras , binoculars , spectacle lenses, and a variety of other optical instruments. In 2004, Pentax had about 6000 employees. In December 2006, Pentax started the process of merging with Hoya Corporation to form 'Hoya Pentax HD Corporation'. Hoya's primary goal was to strengthen its medical-related business by taking advantage of Pentax's technologies and expertise in

624-554: Was a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera built by the Asahi Optical Corporation (later to become Pentax ). Asahi Optical introduced its first 35 mm camera in 1952. Unlike the majority of Japanese camera manufacturers of the time, Asahi made a conscious decision not to produce a mere German rangefinder copy, a relatively simple task. Instead, Asahi decided to copy the Praktiflex , a 1939 design, made in

650-682: Was one of the main problems with prior SLR designs, greatly reducing usability and leading to the greater popularity of the rangefinder. With the IIB there emerged the first practical quick-return mirror, a vital innovation and one which was quickly adopted by other manufacturers. With the final model in the series, the IIA, the Asahiflex gained slow speeds from 1/25th of a second to 1/2 of a second. 2. "Asahiflex I - Pentax M37 Screwmount Slrs - Pentax Camera Reviews And Specifications". Pentaxforums.Com , 2022, https://www.pentaxforums.com/camerareviews/asahiflex-a.html. Tender offer In corporate finance ,

676-485: Was then acquired by Ricoh , leading to the establishment of Pentax Ricoh Imaging (current Ricoh Imaging). In June 17, 2024, as a response to growing interest in film photography, Pentax launched the Pentax 17, a half-frame film camera. This launch marks the first Pentax film camera in over two decades. The original company was founded as Asahi Optical Co Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kaisha in November 1919 by Kumao Kajiwara, at

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