Nikon and RED Digital Cinema Acquisition 13.1 billion yen

Nikon Corporation’s acquisition of RED LLC (hereinafter referred to as RED) as a wholly owned subsidiary, announced on April 12, 2024, caused quite a stir. The acquisition price was not disclosed at the time of the announcement, but the company’s consolidated financial results (IFRS) for the fiscal year ending March 2024 were released, revealing the amount. The price was revealed to be 13.167 billion yen, which is approximately 85 million dollars.

Before the acquisition, Nikon had actually been sued by RED for “patent infringement related to video compression.” The lawsuit was later dropped, and Nikon was effectively allowed to continue to feature compressed RAW recording in its cameras. Nikon revealed that it had begun to consider acquiring RED. This means that Nikon realized that it might be more efficient to acquire RED than to pay the license fees and related damages that RED was seeking.

Since its founding in 2005, RED has been a leading company in the digital cinema camera field, and has released numerous products, including the RED ONE 4K and the cutting-edge V-RAPTOR [X] with its unique RAW compression technology. RED’s contribution to the film industry has not only been an Academy Award, but it has also become the camera of choice for numerous Hollywood productions, earning praise from directors and cinematographers around the world.

Nikon is not only looking forward to the release of its own cinema lenses, but has also indicated its intention to consider adding the Z mount to RED cameras in the future. The two well-respected camera companies are expected to combine their strengths to expand the rapidly growing professional digital cinema camera market.