I just got an email from Leica announcing the M7 and other stuff. They also gave company data which indicated that Minox is no longer part of the group, in part resulting in lower gross and net income. Just what is Minox status? Martin...?

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), February 25, 2002

Answers

After Minox management buyout 51% from Leica, Minox is a separate company,, not a divsion of Leica.

However, Leica Camera Group still owns 49% of Minox

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), February 25, 2002.

Equally, however, in one of their recent financial reports Leica 'anticipated' the eventual sale of their remaining 49% either to Minox execs or some other buyer, once Minox is doing OK on it's own.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 25, 2002.

Management buyouts are common for German camera companies.

A few years ago, before Leica Camera went public, it was also a management owned company.

Rollei, once bought by Samsung, is now again a German company after Rollei management bought back control of the company.

IMO, management buyout of Minox means Minox flag ship cameras such as TLX and CLX remain "Made in Germany" and will not be replaced by "Made in Portugal"

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), February 26, 2002.

Leica company structure>

Leica owns 49% of Minox GmbH

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 05, 2002.

Believe it or not, but it is the truth, Minox cameras are now made in Bolivia by a family of pixies.The parts are helicoptered into a small town 20 miles south of La Paz and then given to the Alvarrez family who take them to a secret goblin cave.Now,pixies have very tiny hands and are able to assemble the little cameras without the aid of machines,thus making it cheaper.This whole proccess differs to Leica who have their cameras made by blind imbeciles.

-- Phil the mechanic (philkneen@manx.net), May 05, 2002.

Phil, surely you can't be including the R8, the king of SLRs, in that statement?

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.

Even blind imbeciles have to make a living.

Nice post, "Phil", but you still need to work harder on the punctuation. Remember: the space (one is enough!) goes _after_ the comma or fullstop. I haven't mentioned colons and semicolons because I don't want to confuse you at this stage. Alternatively, if you find it too taxing, you could just get the other "Phil" to type for you.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), May 06, 2002.

Rob, I hope you aren't going to 'mark me down' for bad punktuashun?

-- fil (philkneen@manx.net), May 06, 2002.

No, but I may have to spank you, you naughty naughty "Phil". You know you want it... you want it so bad...

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), May 06, 2002.

Aaaarh, it hurts so good.

-- Phil me,spank me. (philkneen@manx.net), May 06, 2002.

"Phil", I'm in Modena and you're on the Isle of Man, so you must be spanking yourself. You naughty, naughty... words fail me. Just wait til I get my hands on you...

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), May 06, 2002.

oooooh stop it Rob! I'm trying to scan some pic's to post here and you are destracting me.......you little tinker.(I don't suppose any of the very few people speaking to me have a Canoscan FS4000us and might like to tell me how to get workable sized files????)

Where the hell is Modena?

-- Philled (philkneen@manx.net), May 06, 2002.

"Where the hell is Modena?"

That's what everyone says.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), May 06, 2002.