Konica Minolta acquires Danka Office Imaging for $240 million

10 April 2008

Konica Minolta Holdings, says will acquire Danka Office Imaging Company (DOIC), the wholly-owned US operating subsidiary of London-based Danka Business Systems PLC (Danka), through Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, Inc. (KMBUS), for $240 million.

KMBUSis a US operating subsidiary of the group's core business company, Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. (Konica Minolta).

The Tokyo-based copier and printer expects to compete with larger rivals such as Canon Inc, Ricoh Co Ltd and Xerox Corp. Copiers, printers and other office equipment accounted for 64 per cent of Konica Minolta's revenue around $9.8 billion in the year ended March.

''Through this acquisition, Konica Minolta aims to further increase its share in the office colour equipment,'' Konica ssaid in a statement. ''In the production print field, our competitiveness will be further bolstered by making the most of DOIC's sales and support organisation.  Efficiently integrated management resources of KMBUS and DOIC will surely expedite our overall North American growth strategy with our independent dealers and branch network,'' it added.

Danka Office Imaging is one of the largest independent suppliers of office imaging equipment, software, support, and related services and supplies in the United States. Having strong distribution network covering enterprise customers, DOIC serves over 45,000 promising customers across the United States. DOIC generated approximately $450 million in total revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007.

Konica Minolta, the group's core business company, deals mainly with multi-function peripherals (MFPs) and printers. Ever since management integration of Konica and Minolta in 2003, Konica Minolta, foreseeing that the market will eventually shift to color and high-end machines, steadily reinforced its business infrastructure – namely, increasing mechanical and controller researchers, promoting technological innovation of chemical supplies focused on the unique polymerized toner, reinforcing production and distribution structures, and so on.

Earlier this week, on 4 April 2008, Konica Minolta Holdings, tied up with Dutch photocopier and printer maker Oce NV., which has various cutting-edge technologies in the field of high-end printers and strong direct distribution and service network in both office and production print fields.