Canon in bid for Oce
CANON plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker Oce for €730m (£650m), in a challenge to rivals Ricoh and Xerox in the hunt for growth.
Canon, the copier and digital camera maker, and Oce said in a joint statement yesterday that Canon would offer €8.60 per share, for Oce’s shares, a premium of 70 per cent to Oce’s Friday close.
The world’s largest digital camera maker, which derived 65 per cent of 2008 sales from printers and copiers, and rivals have suffered from the economic slump forcing companies to cut office costs.
Oce, loss-making in the past two quarters, has been cutting costs and staff and paid no final dividend in 2008. Canon and Ricoh reported sharp falls in quarterly profit last month.
Canon and Oce products have little overlap, with the Japanese company strong in regular office machines and lower-end printers while Oce excels in high-end, large-sized printers.