Sony Is Reportedly Trying to Buy Tamron, Which Makes Perfect Sense
Sony has reportedly made a significant offer to buy Tamron, a leading Japanese lens manufacturer that makes more than 20 lenses for Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras.
Sony Reportedly Attempting to Acquire Tamron
Japanese outlet Diamond published an exclusive story today that claims Sony Group has made a 200 billion yen acquisition offer to fully acquire Tamron. At current exchange rates, 200 billion yen is $1.22 billion USD.
Sony Was Until Very Recently Tamron’s Largest Shareholder
This report is immediately given credibility by the fact that Sony is already a significant shareholder in Tamron.
As Tamron outlined at the end of last year, Sony Group Corporation was at that point its largest shareholder, owning 15.35 percent of Tamron’s 640 million total shares.
However, as DC.Life reported just last month, Singaporean investment firm Effissimo Capital Management, which primarily focuses on Japanese equities, swooped in and aggressively expanded its share ownership from just under 11 percent, which was second behind Sony, to nearly 17.4 percent, relegating Sony to second place.
It is entirely reasonable that Effissimo’s aggressive accumulation of Tamron’s shares could have spurred Sony to reconsider its Tamron position.
Tamron’s Value to Sony
Tamron makes many lenses for Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras, APS-C and full-frame alike, which affords Sony numerous benefits.
Third-party lens availability has been a significant strength of the Sony E-mount system since its formation over 15 years ago. It helps separate Sony from its primary competitors in the mirrorless camera space today.
While Tamron does make many of its lenses for Nikon Z-mount cameras, there is no question that E-mount receives preferential treatment in terms of lens availability, pricing, and launch sequencing. Whether that’s because of Sony’s influence through its partial ownership stake or because Sony is such a major player in the camera space is besides the point. High-quality, affordable, and interesting third-party E-mount lenses benefit Tamron and Sony alike.
Beyond a diverse range of affordable E-mount lens options making it easier for Sony to sell cameras to photographers and video-focused content creators, Tamron’s wide-ranging E-mount lens lineup also provides Sony more breathing room to focus its own engineering efforts on flagship-quality, high-margin G Master lenses. The less time Sony spends engineering consumer-focused lenses with thinner margins, the more time it can spend on flagship glass that helps cement the Sony Alpha system’s status as a professional imaging solution.
Sony’s relatively high focus on G and G Master glass in recent years is not to the detriment of the consumer at all, as there are ample E-mount lens options across the board at every price point. That is thanks in large part to Tamron.
Why Sony Would Want to Own Tamron
Defensive Reasons
From a more defensive position, it makes sense that Sony would want to maintain a position of control inside Tamron. Effissimo having eclipsed Sony as Tamron’s largest shareholder alone could be enough to incentivize Sony to pursue a complete and total takeover of Tamron from a strategic perspective. Owning Tamron would enable Sony to fully protect its position.
Aggressive Reasons
But then there are the other considerations. Tamron is not just a very effective partner for Sony in making its cameras more attractive to consumers; Tamron is also extremely useful in helping Sony make more profitable and informed choices about its own engineering efforts. Tamron is also a profitable company in and of itself with optical engineering and manufacturing expertise that any photography company would greatly value.
These are three reasons from an aggressive perspective why Sony would want to buy Tamron. Such a move would provide Sony an opportunity to strengthen its own lens development operations, make more money, and potentially even weaken its competitors.
Competitive Strength
This last point is of particular importance to photographers with Canon APS-C cameras, Nikon Z models, and Fujifilm X Series bodies. While Tamron supports E-mount the most, it makes many lenses for other cameras. If Sony bought Tamron, Sony could also significantly alter how Tamron approaches making lenses for Sony’s competitors, including potentially not making them at all.
PetaPixel has reported numerous times about how many lenses Tamron makes for OEMs. Nearly half of the photographic lenses Tamron makes are branded with another company’s name and logo. This combination of Tamron-branded and OEM lenses gives Tamron the largest market share of all third-party lens makers, the company said last year.
It’s obvious that some of the lenses Tamron makes are Nikon-branded ones, like the Nikkor Z 17-28mm f/2.8, 28-70mm f/2.8, and 70-180mm f/2.8 zooms. But it’s also possible that Tamron is making some Sony-branded lenses. In any case, Tamron is making a lot of lenses for other companies, including Sony’s competitors, both with and without Tamron’s own name on them.
In the event Sony bought Tamron, Sony would have to measure the benefit of harming its competitors against profiting off of them. A Nikon Z owner is unlikely to jump ship to Sony just because of reduced access to future Z-mount Tamron lenses, for example. Sony would arguably be more likely to make money off of a Nikon Z owner by letting Tamron continue on its existing course while still realizing greater benefits for its own camera system. It could be a textbook win-win scenario for Sony.
Where a Potential Deal Stands Now
No deal is official. Even though Diamond‘s reporting looks solid and the reasons why Sony would want Tamron make sense, acquisitions like this can fall apart for many different reasons, even at the 11th hour. Until the ink on a deal is dry, the scenario should be treated with a degree of skepticism.
That said, the reported acquisition value of 200 billion yen, or $1.2 billion, is not an absurd amount for Sony to spend on an acquisition. It’s less than one percent of Sony Group’s total market cap, making it a relatively low-risk maneuver for Sony. Sony spent three times that much a few years ago to acquire video game developer Bungie, and Tamron’s profitability seems much more assured than Bungie’s.
If Sony purchased Tamron, it would very quickly and significantly strengthen its strategic position. The E-mount would get stronger, for starters. Sony would acquire new and valuable manufacturing and engineering assets. And Sony would better profit from Tamron’s generally successful operations.
The idea that Sony would want to purchase Tamron makes sense no matter how it’s sliced.
There are so many reasons why Sony would do it. The company already values Tamron, which is why it was, until very recently, its largest shareholder. The best way to protect and ultimately grow that value is to buy Tamron.
PetaPixel reached out to Sony for comment but did not hear back before publication. In the unlikely event Sony comments on a potential pending acquisition, this story will be updated.
Image creditsSony and Tamron. Header photo created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.com.
