tokyo former type public tyo 7750 2007 ; subsidiary of hoya corporation 2007 2008 industry imaging fate merged into hoya corporation & ibm corporation currently health care division of hoya & ibm ; imaging division resold to ricoh successor pentax ricoh imaging company ltd. founded november 1919 ; 96 years ago 1919 11 tokyo japan defunct march 31 2008 2008 03 31 headquarters tokyo japan area served worldwide key people fumio urano president & ceo ; ganesh ramaswamy global president pentax medical hoya corporation products cameras and photographic equipment ; binoculars spotting scopes and telescopes ; medical fiberscopes and endoscopes ; medical fine ceramics products ; information and communications products ; components ; industrial products ; eyeglass lenses revenue 157.3 billion yen business year ending march 31 2007 net income 3.57 billion yen 1 number of employees 1 661 as of march 31 2005 ; non consolidated pentax corp. only website pentax english site pentax is a brand name used primarily by ricoh imaging company for cameras sport optics including binoculars and rifle scopes and cctv optics . the brand is also used by hoya corporation for medical products & services 1 ti asahi for surveying instruments 2 and seiko optical products for certain optical lenses . 3 contents 1 corporate history 1.1 early history 1.2 early 1950s to 2007 1.3 merger with hoya 1.4 ricoh imaging company 2 products 3 corporate cooperation and competition 4 subsidiaries 4.1 asia 4.2 europe 4.3 north america 5 see also 6 notes 7 references 8 external links corporate history edit early history edit the company was founded as asahi kogaku goshi kaisha in november 1919 by kumao kajiwara at a shop in the toshima suburb of tokyo and began producing spectacle lenses which it still manufactures . 4 in 1938 it changed its name to asahi optical co. ltd. asahi k gaku k gy kabushiki gaisha and by this time it was also manufacturing camera cine lenses . in the lead up to world war ii asahi optical devoted much of its time to fulfilling military contracts for optical instruments . at the end of the war asahi optical was disbanded by the occupying powers being allowed to re form in 1948 . the company resumed its pre war activities manufacturing binoculars and consumer camera lenses for konishiroku and chiyoda k gaku seik later konica and minolta respectively . early 1950s to 2007 edit the period around 1950 marked the return of the japanese photographic industry to the vigorous level of the late 1930s and its emergence as a major exporter . the newly reborn industry had sold many of its cameras to the occupation forces having had far more disposable income than the japanese and they were well received . 5 the korean war saw a huge influx of journalists and photographers to the far east where they were impressed by lenses from companies such as nikon and canon for their leica rangefinder cameras and also by bodies by these and other companies to supplement and replace the leica and contax cameras they were using . this section s factual accuracy is disputed . please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced . see the relevant discussion on the talk page . june 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message zeiss ikon pentax prototype with a carl zeiss jena tessar lens . in 1952 asahi optical introduced its first camera the asahiflex the first japanese slr using 35mm film . the name pentax was originally a registered trademark of the east german veb zeiss ikon from pentaprism and contax and acquired by the asahi optical company in 1957 . since then the company has been primarily known for its photographic products distributed under the name asahi pentax equipment was imported to the united states from the 1950s until the mid 1970s by honeywell corporation and branded as heiland pentax and later honeywell pentax . the company was renamed pentax corporation in 2002 . it was one of the world s largest optical companies producing still cameras binoculars spectacle lenses and a variety of other optical instruments . in 2004 pentax had about 6000 employees . merger with hoya edit in december 2006 pentax started the process of merging with hoya corporation to form hoya pentax hd corporation . 6 hoya s primary goal was to strengthen its medical related business by taking advantage of pentax s technologies and expertise in the field of endoscopes intraocular lenses surgical loupes biocompatible ceramics etc. it was speculated that pentax s camera business could be sold off after the merger . a stock swap was to be completed by october 1 2007 but the process was called off on april 11 2007 . pentax president fumio urano resigned over the matter with takashi watanuki taking over as president of pentax . 7 however despite watanuki s previously stated opposition to a hoya merger on may 16 it was reported that pentax had accepted with conditions a sweetened offer from hoya according to a source familiar with the matter . 8 pentax was under increasing pressure from its major shareholders sparx asset management in particular to accept hoya s bid . on august 6 2007 hoya completed a friendly public tender offer for pentax and acquired 90.59 % of the company . 9 on august 14 2007 the company became a consolidated subsidiary of hoya . on october 29 2007 hoya and pentax announced that pentax would merge with and into hoya effective on march 31 2008 . 10 hoya closed the pentax owned factory in tokyo and moved most of their operations to southeast asia . all professional da and consumer da d fa lenses are produced in vietnam whereas dslr cameras are produced in philippines . citation needed ricoh imaging company edit japanese optical glass maker hoya corporation stated on july 1 2011 that it would sell its pentax camera business to copier and printer maker ricoh in a deal the nikkei business daily reported was worth about 10 billion yen 124.2 million . 11 on july 29 2011 hoya transferred its pentax imaging systems business to a newly established subsidiary called pentax imaging corporation . on october 1 2011 ricoh acquired all shares of pentax imaging corp. and renamed the new subsidiary pentax ricoh imaging company ltd. 12 hoya will continue to use the pentax brand name for their medical related products such as endoscopes . on august 1 2013 the company name was changed to ricoh imaging company ltd. 13 products edit main articles pentax cameras and pentax lens the corporation is best known for its pentax brand cameras starting with the pivotal asahi pentax single lens reflex camera of 1957 which followed asahi s first series of cameras the asahiflex of 1952 . the success of the pentax series was such that the business eventually renamed itself pentax corporation after the product . although the corporation ultimately merged into hoya corporation it eventually was purchased by ricoh who continues to develop and market cameras under the pentax brand . corporate cooperation and competition edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message in 2005 pentax corporation partnered with samsung techwin 14 to share work on camera technology and recapture market ground from nikon and canon . pentax and samsung subsequently released new dslr siblings from this agreement . the pentax ist ds and istdl2 also appeared as the samsung gx 1s and gx 1l while the jointly developed 90 % pentax and 10 % samsung pentax k10d and k20d gave birth to the samsung gx 10 and gx 20 respectively . some pentax lenses are also rebranded and sold as samsung schneider kreuznach d xenon and d xenogon lenses for samsung dslrs . however both brands are completely compatible with pentax and samsung dslrs . hoya is focusing its main business on the following areas information technology eye care life care optics imaging systems . pentax s main competitors include canon nikon olympus panasonic sony imaging camera business fujifilm sangi kyocera life care business . subsidiaries edit asia edit pentax industrial instruments co. ltd. pentax optotech co. ltd. pentax service co. ltd. pentax fukushima co. ltd. pentax tohoku co. ltd. pentax trading shanghai co. ltd. pentax shanghai corporation pentax hong kong ltd. pentax cebu philippines corporation pentax vn co. ltd. europe edit pentax europe gmbh pentax u.k. ltd. pentax france s.a. pentax schweiz ag pentax scandinavia ab pentax nederland b.v. pentax europe n.v. north america edit pentax of america inc. pentax medical company pentax of america inc. pentax imaging company pentax of america inc. pentax medical company pentax imaging company microline pentax inc. pentax canada inc. kaypentax pentax medical company pentax teknologies . see also edit companies portal asahi pentax asahiflex list of digital camera brands list of pentax products list of photographic equipment makers pentax cameras pentax lenses notes edit pentax medical company and pentax new ceramics ti asahi seiko optical products history of pentax corporation . derek j. white . deschin jacob . japanese camera . published in the new york times of december 10 1950 . hoya and pentax reach basic understanding for management integration pdf . hoya . 2006 12 21 . retrieved 2007 04 12 . pentax scraps hoya deal picks new boss . the asahi shimbun . 2007 04 11 . archived from the original on 2007 09 29 . retrieved 2007 04 12 . pentax to accept hoya offer with conditions source . reuters . 2007 05 16 . retrieved 2007 05 18 . notice regarding the results of the tender offer for the shares of pentax corporation and change of subsidiary pdf . hoya corporation . 2007 08 07 . retrieved 2007 08 07 . public notice of execution of merger agreement pdf . pentax corporation . 2007 10 29 . retrieved 2007 10 31 . reuters ricoh to buy pentax . ricoh to buy pentax from hoya . july 1 retrieved 2011 july 1 2011 . ricoh establishes pentax ricoh imaging company ltd. company name change . samsung and pentax to co develop dslrs . dpreview.com . 2005 10 12 . retrieved 2011 06 28 . references edit the japanese historical camera . nihon no rekishiteki kamera . 2nd ed . tokyo jcii camera museum 2004 . cecchi danilo 1991 asahi pentax and pentax slr 35mm cameras 1952 1989 hove photo books sussex . isbn 978 0 906447 62 8 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to pentax cameras . pentax ricoh imaging company digital cameras binoculars etc. ricoh pentax medical company endoscopic imaging devices hoya pentax new ceramics hydroxyapatite hoya pentax surveying instruments ti asahi pentax lenses seiko optical products v t e electronics industry in japan companies current alaxala networks alinco alps alpine anritsu aor audio technica brother canon casio citizen watch cosina d & m holdings denon marantz daikin dainippon screen denso dnp eiki eizo elpida esp guitars fanuc fostex fuji electric fujifilm fuji xerox fujitsu fujitsu ten funai furuno futaba hamamatsu photonics hirose electric hitachi clarion hitachi maxell hoya ibanez icom ikegami tsushinki i o data iwatsu japan display jeol jrc jr propo jvc kenwood jvc kenwood kawai keyence kiramek konica minolta ko propo korg kyocera luxman mabuchi motor mamiya maspro melco minebea mitsubishi electric mitsumi electric murata manufacturing mutoh nakamichi nec nec casio mobile communications nichia nichicon nidec nidec copal corporation nikon nintendo nitto denko oki olympus omron onkyo orion electric panasonic pioneer pixela renesas electronics ricoh pentax rohm roland rubycon sansui sanwa electronic sega sammy sega seiko group pulsar seiko seiko epson seiko instruments sharp shimadzu sigma sony sony interactive entertainment snk playmore star micronics stax sumitomo electric taiyo yuden tamron tdk teac tiger tokyo electron topcon toshiba uniden wacom yaesu yagi uda yamaha yaskawa zojirushi zoom zuken defunct