Konica Corp. and Minolta Co., two of the nation's leading manufacturers of camera and office equipment, announced Tuesday that they will merge their businesses under a holding company in August to survive in the increasingly competitive market.
The alliance will create Japan's fourth-largest precision instrument maker, with annual consolidated sales of more than 1 trillion yen, and the two firms hope the union will position them to better compete with industry leaders Canon Inc., Fuji Photo Film Co. and Ricoh Co.
At a hastily arranged news conference prompted by a report in a major daily on the planned integration, executives of the two firms said they had signed an agreement earlier in the day to consolidate their management through an exchange of shares.