DoddleNews: Did DJI Buy Hasselblad?

Posted January 10, 2017

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DJI and Hasselblad are two well known camera companies. DJI has gained recent popularity because of its innovative drones, gimbals and other digital video products, and Hasselblad is well known for its years of quality camera's and lenses. It seems like DJI, already a minority shareholder in Hasselblad, may soon become the majority shareholder.

The two teaming up could mean big things in video. Hasselblad has aleady released a camera with video capabilities, but it was met with mixed reviews. With DJI at the helm though, that could mean some more serious involvement in video for Hasselblad.

This move makes sense because Hasselblad, already a great reputation in photography, needs to step up its videoo capabilities if it wants to find continued success in a world increasingly dominated by video.

James DeRuvo from DoddleNews reports:

It wasn’t all that long ago that DJI bought a minority interest in German camera maker Hasselblad, to explore how developing larger format cameras for a drone could be done. Now the word on the street is that the leading drone maker is going all in with a complete acquisition of the company.

“It seems that everyone inside Hasselblad knows about this, as well as some distributors and resellers. You can’t keep something this big a secret for very long, eventually, it is going to get out.” – Kevin Raber, Luminous Landscape

This isn’t an official announcement just yet, but according to “reliable sources” by Luminous Landscape, DJI has expanded their investment in the company and now owns a majority share. What prompted the investment may have been that Hasselblad was spending money hand over fist in an effort to develop a line of medium format digital cameras to evolve and compete in the digital marketplace. DJI was looking to expand into more camera platforms and so it seemed that getting a minority share of the company could be the answer to all Hasselblad’s financial troubles.

Now a year later, it looks like they’ve quietly expanded their investment to own a majority share. Why quietly? Well, DJI’s manufacturing is in China, while Hasselblad is in Europe. It could be the company plans to move the brand closer to their manufacturing base, which would have a dramatic impact on jobs in Sweden.

Then there’s the sales impact… Like many companies that have tried to evolve from film to digital, Hasselblad has been struggling with reinventing itself and getting some market share in the new digital paradigm. DJI can give it a shot in the arm by adding a new line of larger platform drones that have a medium format camera array. But only when it’s ready.

Read the full report.