Canon bids for Swedish CCTV firm Axis to expand into surveillance
CAMERA giant Canon plans to buy Swedish video surveillance and network camera company Axis.
Canon has made an offer of to buy all of Axis’ Nasdaq Stockholm-listed shares at 340 Swedish Crowns (£26.75) for a total of 23.6bn Swedish crowns.
Axis’ board of directions has recommended their share holders accept the offer of and the Axis founders, who hold around 40 per cent of the voting rights, have accepted the offer, under certain conditions.
The Swedish company will be able to officially accept the offer between 3 March and 1 April.
The offer is part of the fourth phase of Canon’s excellent global corporation plan and the company said it wanted to welcome Axis into the Canon Group as it views the surveillance camera business as a growing branch.
Though its market share went down from 2013 to 2014, Canon has been the digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) market leader for over 11 years, holding a 49.2 per cent market share last year, while rival Nikon held 42.5 per cent.