A number of people have wondered about Leica Camera AG's finances.

As noted in another thread, I've posted some information at my photo.net web page. Unfortunately, its in bitmap format, which may result in slow downloads, my apologies.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), September 19, 2000

Answers

Well, I fixed that. The information is now available also as jpeg files which can be viewed directly by your browser. Copyright is Bloomberg L.P.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), September 19, 2000.

Their company report is freely available on their website and it is a little depressing. M-Leicas are doing well. R-Leicas are stagnant with less than half the revenue of the Ms. I think it said that point and shoot Leicas had higher revenues than the R system. Projectors sales down (as usual). The company as a whole did OK, but they really are a small company.....No wonder they are trying to maximize their profits with the Leica 0 etc. which must have an easy and predictable (albeit small) sale.

-- Robin Smith (rsmith@springer-ny.com), September 19, 2000.

M-Leicas are doing well

Robin, the data Mani posted doesn't show this. It shows a drop in M sales, not a big drop, but a drop for the last two years. I wouldn't be surprised to see all bodies made in Japan, and a new set of bodies at that, within two years, a la Contax.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), September 19, 2000.

As Robin pointed out Leica AG is on the road to recovery, their share prices have even gone up a little. The "R" line, on which so much money has been spent lately, has performed poorly. It may be the kiss of death for further reflex developments. Leica is branching into designing lenses for high end digital video equipment with Panasonic ( who makes Leica's P&S and Minilux cameras) and working on continued improvements to the M line. Look for a M6-AE before the next Photokina I hope.

Cheers

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), September 19, 2000.

I'm surprised that somebody like Panasonic just hasn't gobbled up the company like what has happened to most older small companies today. If Leica would pay more attention to feedback from their users and dealers, they could have come out with a succesful selling SLR line. I personally think they just priced themselves right out of the market with the current series of ROM lenses. If someone wanted to buy a wide angle, a short fast zoom, a portrait lens, and a telephoto zoom for a fairly complete lens outfit:

19mm $2845 35-70 f2.8 $3145 80 f1.4 $2845 80-200 f4.0 $1845 or 70-180 f2.8 $5245,

If you went with the real Leica tele zoom, the above lens systen would set you back over $14,000. I just bought a nice low miles Audi for my wife for about that amount! Similar equipment from Nikon or Canon would be closer to $3000. You'd have to need a big tax write off to justify spending that kind of money on 35mm camera equipment.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), September 19, 2000.

My post and page are misleading as they represent year old information. Leica Camera has indeed turned the corner and made a small profit for the year 1999/2000 (not shown on my page). Good news indeed, and my sincere apologies for misleading anyone. Up to date corporatate information, as Robin correctly points out is available at

www.leica-camera.de

Notwithstanding which I agree with several of the comments in this and the other related thread.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), September 19, 2000.