Konica Minolta - Company History

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Financial history 2002–2026 — revenue, cost structure, balance sheet, cash flow and key ratios, year by year →

Founded 2003
Origin コニカ+ミノルタ
Founding location 東京都千代田区
Core business at founding Photographic light-sensitive materials and cameras
Listed 2003
President Daiko Toshimitsu President since 2022 (age 63, as of 2026)
Current priority Business divestment · Earnings recovery Selling non-core businesses and improving earnings in multifunction printers
Founding
In August 2003 Konica and Minolta combined by share exchange, and Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. was formed. The surviving company was Konica, which traces back to Konishiya Rokubei-ten, a dealer in photographic materials that opened at Kojimachi in Tokyo in 1873, and the stock code was carried over unchanged. Ahead of the merger, in April of the same year, Konica had split all of its businesses into four operating companies and two shared-function companies to become a pure holding company, and in June it had moved to a committee-based board. The board after the merger was made up of four directors each from the old Konica, the old Minolta and outside, and Ota Yoshikatsu, the last president of Minolta — a maker of cameras and copiers — became president in April 2006. In April 2013 seven group companies were absorbed, the company returned to being an operating company, and the name was changed to Konica Minolta, Inc.
The Decision
It wound up both of its founding trades and narrowed to multifunction printers alone. In January 2006 it withdrew at the same time from cameras, the founding trade of the old Minolta, and from photo, the mainstay of the old Konica, cutting 2,243 jobs and booking $906.4M (¥105bn) of extraordinary losses. The year to March 2006 ended in a net loss of $467M (¥54bn), but operating profit came back to $883.1M (¥104bn) the following year. The price of that concentration was dependence on office equipment, and in October 2017 the company acquired Ambry Genetics of the United States to enter cancer gene diagnostics. Gene diagnostics ran into the walls of regulation and insurance reimbursement, and the year to March 2023 carried a net loss of $733.8M (¥103bn) including goodwill impairment. The concentration bought by erasing the founding trades created a different problem — a single leg to stand on — and the acquisition that sought the answer outside the company turned, seven years later, into the largest loss in its history.
Today
The return to profit in the year to March 2026 came from repairing the multifunction printer business, not from anything new. Against consolidated revenue of $6.9B (¥1.09tn), operating profit was $314.9M (¥50bn) and net profit $190.9M (¥30bn) — a reversal within one year from the operating loss of $427.7M (¥64bn) and net loss of $316.7M (¥47bn) of the year before. By segment, Digital Workplace had revenue of $3.9B (¥614bn) and operating profit of $233.9M (¥37bn), Professional Print $1.6B (¥255bn) and $58.8M (¥9bn), and Industry $832.7M (¥132bn) and $140.4M (¥22bn); only Imaging Solution posted a loss, of $8.2M (¥1bn) on revenue of $603.2M (¥95bn). The transfer of Ambry Genetics in February 2025 and the roughly 5,200 jobs cut since the end of March 2024 left the earning power of the printer business standing as consolidated profit.
Competition
The rival it fought in multifunction printers has become the partner it shares toner procurement with. In May 2024 Konica Minolta signed a toner business alliance with Fujifilm Business Innovation, and in September of the same year the two contracted to set up a joint venture for office-equipment procurement. Fujifilm Business Innovation holds 75 per cent of it and Konica Minolta 25 per cent, with a staff of about 220. Of the two companies that came out of photographic materials, Fujifilm widened into pharmaceuticals and materials in preparation for the disappearance of its main business, while Konica Minolta concentrated its management resources on multifunction printers. The scale gained in the 2003 merger was meant to pay for the development costs of those printers; twenty years on, the company has moved to the side that shares the cost of making them with a competitor.

Timeline

2003–2007A holding company built first, and two founding trades closed at once

  1. 2003Konica merges with Minolta by share exchange, renamed Konica Minolta Holdings
  2. 2003Head office moves to Marunouchi, Tokyo
  3. 2003All businesses regrouped into six operating and two shared-function companies
  4. 2004Photo-imaging subsidiary merged into the camera subsidiary
  5. 2004Konica Minolta Business Technologies (WUXI) established in China
  6. 2005Konica Minolta IJ founded to start the inkjet-head business
  7. 2005Personnel system for general employees unified; headcount down 3,000-plus
  8. 2005Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging USA acquires American Litho Inc.
  9. 2006Withdrawal from the camera and photo businesses announced in January
  10. 2006Camera business ends; α series assets sold to Sony
  11. 2006FY05 closes with a net loss of ¥54.3bn
  12. 2007Photo business ends in September

2007–2013Converging on office equipment alone, and rebuilding after Lehman

  1. 2007Operating profit reaches ¥104.0bn, meeting the plan a year early
  2. 2007Konica Minolta Healthcare launched from the medical sales and service arms
  3. 2008Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. acquires Danka Office Imaging
  4. 2008Operating profit of ¥119.6bn, the highest since the merger
  5. 2009Revenue falls to ¥947.8bn and operating profit to ¥56.2bn
  6. 2009Ota Yoshikatsu hands the presidency to Matsuzaki Masatoshi
  7. 2010Printing business moved to Business Technologies; domestic sales merged
  8. 2012Group reorganisation re-sorts functional materials, optics and sensing
  9. 2013Seven group companies absorbed; renamed Konica Minolta, Inc.

2014–2025A diversification strategy that failed, and a ¥103.1bn impairment

  1. 2014Matsuzaki Masatoshi hands the presidency to Yamana Shoei
  2. 2016Healthcare sales arm absorbs the office-equipment arm to form Konica Minolta Japan
  3. 2016Yamana becomes president and CEO; the post of CEO is newly created
  4. 2017Ambry Genetics Corporation of the United States acquired in October
  5. 2019Operating profit peaks in FY18, then falls to ¥8.2bn in FY19
  6. 2021FY20 posts an operating loss of ¥16.3bn and a net loss of ¥15.2bn
  7. 2022Yamana hands the presidency to Daiko Toshimitsu; TSE Prime listing
  8. 2023FY22 revenue recovers to ¥1,130.4bn but the net loss reaches ¥103.1bn
  9. 2023FY23–FY25 medium-term plan sets out selection and concentration
  10. 2024Invicro, LLC transferred; toner alliance signed with Fujifilm Business Innovation
  11. 2025Transfer of all Ambry Genetics shares to Tempus AI completed in February
  12. 2025Global structural reform completed; headcount down about 5,200 since March 2024

Founding Story

2003–2007A holding company built first, and two founding trades closed at once

Konica Minolta was created in August 2003, when Konica took Minolta in by share exchange after three years of alliance in office equipment, and on the measure the merger was built for it worked immediately: consolidated revenue went from $4.8B (¥559bn) in the year to March 2003 to $9.7B (¥1.07tn) two years later. What the merger did not settle was the two founding trades, and within three years both Minolta’s cameras and Konica’s photographic film had been closed at a cost of 2,243 jobs and $906.4M (¥105bn) in extraordinary losses.

Merger by share exchange, and a regroup into six operating companies

In August 2003 Konica combined with Minolta by share exchange and changed its name to Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.[1] The two had begun a business alliance in office equipment in April 2000, and with the markets for photographic film and for cameras both contracting, the merger was intended to gather management resources into the office-equipment business. In October 2003 all of the businesses the two companies held were regrouped into six operating companies and two shared-function companies[2]; the sales subsidiaries for office equipment and photo imaging in Japan, the United States and Germany were brought together one after another, and the Chinese production subsidiaries for office equipment were merged as well[3]. The old Konica held high-speed digital copiers and the old Minolta held colour laser printers, and the work of pushing overlapping sales channels and product lines onto one side or the other sat at the centre of the merger’s first year.

The effect of the merger showed first in scale. Consolidated revenue expanded from $4.8B (¥559bn) in the year to March 2003 to $9.7B (¥1.07tn) in the year to March 2005, the first year in which the merger contributed in full[4]. In a ranking of revenue growth that Shukan Toyo Keizai compiled by setting 2002 results against forecasts for the year to March 2005, Konica Minolta Holdings came top among Japan’s major companies at 122.4 per cent. In September 2003 the head office moved to Marunouchi in Tokyo, and in April 2004 the photo-imaging subsidiary was merged into the camera subsidiary[5]. In December 2004 the company established Konica Minolta Business Technologies (WUXI), an office-equipment production subsidiary in Wuxi, China, concentrating its manufacturing as well[6].

Governance after the merger, and a personnel system rebuilt from scratch

Ahead of the merger, Konica had already completed the move to a holding-company structure and to a committee-based board[7]. The new company inherited that machinery, running its three committees — audit, nomination and remuneration — with outside directors in the majority on each and an outside director chairing each. The board after the merger was made up of four directors from the old Konica, four from the old Minolta and four from outside, and the outside seats were filled with people who had run companies in other industries: Fujiwara Kikuo (藤原菊男), adviser to Shimadzu; Katada Tetsuya (片田哲也), special adviser to Komatsu; Inoue Noriyuki (井上礼之), chairman of Daikin Industries; and Nakayama Yu (中山悠), chairman of Meiji Milk Products. President Iwai Fumio (岩居文雄) said that because every outside director came from a company unconnected with Konica Minolta and each had a strong sense of responsibility, a tension entered the running of the company, and that this worked well in carrying the merger through[8].

Iwai said of this machinery, I have no authority over personnel and no authority to set pay. The nomination committee, on the other hand, can replace me at any time[9]. The personnel system was not spliced together from the two companies’ existing systems but rebuilt from scratch, and pay levels were not simply raised to match the higher of the two. The stated principle was to discard past success entirely and to respect people who keep changing — an explicit refusal to take the best of both companies. The system for managers was followed in April 2005 by one for general employees, and by that point headcount had fallen by more than 3,000 against two years earlier.

Exit from cameras and photo, and an extraordinary loss of ¥105.4bn

In January 2006 Konica Minolta Holdings announced its withdrawal from the camera business and from the photo business[10]. Cameras were the founding trade of the old Minolta and photo was the main business of the old Konica, so the decision closed both companies’ founding trades at the same time. The single-lens reflex assets — the α series — were sold to Sony[11], while operations such as minilabs were simply wound up. The camera business ended in March 2006 and the photo business in September 2007. Iwai gave as his reason for the exit that the CCD, the core component accounting for a large share of manufacturing cost, could not be made in-house because the company had no semiconductor technology. The two businesses together had posted an operating loss of $81.7M (¥9bn) in the year to March 2005, and the market for photographic film had been shrinking at about 20 per cent a year since the late 1990s.

The exits carried 2,243 job cuts, and the company booked $906.4M (¥105bn) of extraordinary losses in total, including $246M (¥29bn) of impairment on production equipment, $513.4M (¥60bn) of costs for winding up sales bases and related items, and $147.1M (¥17bn) of workforce-rationalisation costs[12]. As a result the year to March 2006 fell to a net loss of $467M (¥54bn)[13]. Over the same period, in January 2005, the company set up Konica Minolta IJ, Inc. to start an inkjet-head business, and in October 2005 Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging USA acquired American Litho Inc., a maker of printing plates[14]; the retreat from the founding trades and the strengthening of areas outside office equipment ran side by side.

2007–2013Converging on office equipment alone, and rebuilding after Lehman

With both founding trades gone, what remained was a company running on office equipment, and it ran well at first: operating profit of $883.1M (¥104bn) in the year to March 2007 met the medium-term plan a year early, and $1.2B (¥120bn) the following year was the best result since the merger. The financial crisis then halved it, and by April 2013 the holding company built to make the merger possible had been folded back into a single operating company.

Operating profit of ¥104.0bn in the year after the founding trades closed

In the year after the founding trades were closed, the year to March 2007, consolidated operating profit came to $883.1M (¥104bn), reaching the target figure of the medium-term management plan a year early[15]. In April 2006 Ota Yoshikatsu (太田義勝), Minolta’s last president, became president of Konica Minolta Holdings. Ota said the point of the merger had lain in office equipment from the beginning, explaining that at Minolta too office equipment had accounted for more than 70 per cent of revenue before the merger[16]. In April 2007 the domestic sales company and the technical-service subsidiary of the medical business were combined to launch Konica Minolta Healthcare[17], and the company was rebuilt on two legs: office equipment centred on multifunction printers, and optical components and functional materials.

The overseas sales network for office equipment was widened further. In June 2008 Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. acquired Danka Office Imaging Company of the United States, thickening the North American sales network[18]. Consolidated operating profit for the year to March 2008 was $1.2B (¥120bn), the highest since the merger[19]. The practical work of the merger itself had been finished in about eighteen months with March 2005 as the target date: in each country the sales companies and the dealers were kept or dropped, and brand, sales channels, design philosophy and information systems were each brought onto one. Looking back on the period, Ota said that a good deal had been forced through.

The post-Lehman slowdown, and the dissolution of the holding company

The financial crisis of autumn 2008 turned demand around. Consolidated revenue for the year to March 2009 was $10.1B (¥948bn) and operating profit $600.9M (¥56bn), close to half the previous year, and by the year to March 2010 they had fallen to $9.2B (¥804bn) and $500.2M (¥44bn)[20]. Net profit likewise dropped to $161.4M (¥15bn) in the year to March 2009 and $192.5M (¥17bn) in the year to March 2010, less than a quarter of the $665.8M (¥69bn) of the year to March 2008[21]. Demand for office copiers fell worldwide, while the fixed costs of the sales network the merger had widened stayed where they were. In April 2009 the presidency passed from Ota to Matsuzaki Masatoshi (松﨑正年), and the executive line-up was replaced[22].

What followed was a steady undoing of the functions that had been divided beneath the holding company. In October 2010 the printing-related business was transferred from Konica Minolta MG to Konica Minolta Business Technologies, and the domestic sales companies were combined[23]. In April 2012 a reorganisation within the group re-sorted responsibility for the new functional materials, optics and sensing businesses[24]. In April 2013 seven group companies were absorbed, the pure holding company became an operating company, and the name was changed to Konica Minolta, Inc.[25] The holding company set up for the sake of the merger had served out its purpose in ten years. In the year to March 2013, the year of the shift to an operating company, consolidated revenue was $8.3B (¥813bn) and operating profit $416M (¥41bn) — short of the $11.2B (¥1.3tn) of revenue and $1.3B (¥150bn) of operating profit that had been set out as targets for the 2005 financial year when the merger was announced[26].

Read the full history in Japanese →

Notes

  1. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  2. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  3. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  4. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2005)↩
  5. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  6. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  7. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  8. 週刊東洋経済 (Shukan Toyo Keizai), 5 March 2005↩
  9. 週刊東洋経済 (Shukan Toyo Keizai), 5 March 2005↩
  10. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  11. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), workforce section↩
  12. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2006)↩
  13. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2006)↩
  14. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  15. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2007)↩
  16. 週刊東洋経済 (Shukan Toyo Keizai), 22 September 2007↩
  17. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  18. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  19. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2008)↩
  20. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2010)↩
  21. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2010)↩
  22. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2009)↩
  23. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  24. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  25. Konica Minolta, securities report for the 121st term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  26. Konica Minolta, securities report (FYE March 2013)↩

References & sources

  1. Konica Minolta, Inc. — annual securities reports, including the corporate-history and workforce sections.

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