Telecom Lead Asia: Cash strapped- Olympus, is set to sell
its mobile telecom business for $676 million or 53 billion yen to Japan
Industrial Partners, an investment fund.
Olympus is a Japan-based medical equipment and camera
maker.
The ITX Corp sell off will let the company rebuild from a
recent accounting fraud. Post acquisition, Japan Industrial Partners will
operate the mobile phone retailing business through an IT services unit.
In order to sell its mobile telecom business, Olympus
will divide its subsidiary ITX Corp into two, and sell off the unit with the
main mobile-phone retailing business, while the other unit will still be owned
by Olympus.
ITX was acquired by Olympus for about 60 billion yen in
multiple transactions from 2000 to 2011.
In an official statement, Olympus said that the sale is
set to be completed on September 28.
Last year, Olympus revealed that it hid huge investment
losses since the 1990s and sought to sell some of its businesses outside its
core operations of endoscopes, microscopes and cameras.
The company was also in talks with Sony Corp, Fujifilm
Holdings and others on a possible capital alliance.
