Olympus embarks on restructuring, reaches 10mn pounds settlement with Woodford
Japanese camera and endoscope maker Olympus Friday confirmed it had settled a 10 million pounds payout with whistleblower Michael Woodford, who took his former employer to a labour tribunal in London last week, as the company attempts to make a "fresh start" by trimming 7 per cent of its workforce.
Woodford had filed a case against his former employers for unfair dismissal for blowing the lid on a 1.1billion pounds accounting fraud.
Striving to recover from a year of scandal, catastrophic losses and allegations of fraud, Olympus announced plans to cut 2,700 jobs to re-balance the books and plough the resources into mirrorless system cameras and high-end compacts.
The company has estimated a 7billion yen profit this year as it consolidates its global manufacturing base and trims staff costs.
The downsizing of workforce will take place over the next two years as Olympus seeks to return to profit after sinking into the red last year with a loss of 48.99bn yen (399.4 million pounds).
Olympus' loss last year was mainly related to huge schunks of money paid to cover up losses dating back to the 1990s. This included a $687 million fee-payment to financial advisers during the acquisition of UK medical equipment company Gyrus.
Woodford uncovered the losses within two months of becoming the company's first non-Japanese chief executive and was fired in October 2011.
Olympus shares closed at 1,297 yen in Asia still half their worth than their 2,482 yen peak the day before Woodford was sacked.
Woodford, who has won a confirmed 10 million pounds (1.245 billion yen) payout from the company, says the firm has a "bright future".
In a 'medium-term vision' statement released Friday, the company said: "In the imaging business we will review our product line-up by allocating management resources with a focus on mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras and high-end compact cameras, while improving profitability."
The statement indicates that Olympus will move away from DSLRs while continuing to sell its E-series. The reason being "the top two companies (Canon and Nikon) dominate in terms of market share, brand strength and development capability".
As part of the restructure, Olympus plans to shift focus from 'low-end' compacts, on grounds that these deliver 'low-profit' potential in its mature markets.
Olympus says it will "strive" to ensure its imaging business breaks into profit by "March 2013".
Source: The Japan News.Net
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