Agfa resists sale of consumer arm
By Ian Burley
20th June - 2001
Stop press! - later story development - 20th July - 2001
Agfa, the Belgian/German company tradiationally famous for its film products and latterly successful in the PC scanner market, has denied that it is to quit the consumer market through the disposal of its consumer business to a third party.Agfa revealed today that negotiations with private equity specialist Schroder Ventures to sell its Consumer Imaging division have failed.
Schroder Ventures made an unsolicited offer for this part of Agfa’s business earlier this year. The official Agfa press release states: “..it became obvious that both parties' points of view were too far apart to reach an agreement. An important point of discussion was the transfer of the Agfa brand name and logo.”
Agfa’s Ludo Verhoeven, who will now be promoted from vice chairman to president and CEO explains: "The profitability of all Agfa-activities, and therefore also Consumer Imaging, has improved significantly over the past few years as a result of the restructuring measures that were taken. Agfa will continue this process in a coherent way."
It hasn’t escaped our notice that after an early and spirited assault on the digital camera market with products like the split-body ePhoto 1280 and the Iomega Clik! drive-equipped ePhoto CL30, Agfa’s digital camera efforts have waned in recent months. After some solid success in the consumer flatbed scanner market, Agfa doesn’t seem to be pursuing this increasingly competitive market with as much vigour as before.
It had been thought the Schroder proposition would see Agfa focusing on its more profitable commercial and industrial imaging product lines.
The innovative Agfa ePhoto 1280, c.1997
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