Some good points. Actually there was (and still is) quite a bit of concern over Phase. LuLa went straight to the source with the CEO of Phase in a video shortly after where Henrik tried to ease concerns, although most familiar with PE firms I think remained unconvinced (and are still concerned). I would be surprised if Kevin didn't take the same approach with Hasselblad, but for reasons we'll never know an interview with Perry wasn't possible. Kevin's article sounded like he was frustrated because it seemed to be pretty common knowledge (he stated multiple reliable sources) but they wouldn't talk about it or formally announce it... and recently Hasselblad's communications policies have come under fire from a lot of people. Brings to mind that overused term "transparency". Certainly Hasselbad/DJI have the right to do what they want, but if the cat's out of the bag maybe it's better to get a head of things?
But there is a difference. In Phases case they were pulling out owner equity for their own security as well as acquiring some financial resources which PE firms have access to that small companies really don't, including lower interest on debt etc. Phase was in a similar position, capital for R&D on the new 100mp sensor, and ramp up production on new products like the XF and IQ3 series of backs. But the new owners were just that, investors, not a "strategic" buyer, and the "owners" ... the ones that design and build the camera I believe still have a decent size stake in the company. They may be in a minority position, but they stand to lose a lot of money if the company isn't successful. I actually think if Phase had announced that DJI had acquired a majority position, the tone and concern in the article would have been pretty much the same.
In this case we have a company that's been bouncing between several investor/owners (none of which appear to be key people within hasselblad), and management teams for years. Over the past several years that combination seems to have made several missteps. Personally I think the investment groups behind hasselblad were as much to blame as the company for those decisions ... (I saw the same thing in a firm I sold and the "board" decided to change things around because they thought they had a better idea). But it appears now the company has fixed those issues, and now are just cash strapped to get their product out the door. But DJI may or may not be the best suitor for Hasselblad, they may be best suitor to the PE firm whose only motivation is getting some of their investment back (and has already shown their poor judgement in the past).
Both situations are troublesome, both seem a little precarious to the future of the respective companies, but that doesn't mean either will turn out negative. On the surface Hasselblad (as we know it or hope it to be) seems more tenuous because we really don't know what DJI has in mind. good news it seems to at least given them a chance to succeed (which is what I got out of Kevin's article)
And in the long run we may find that Phase's situation does turn out worse ... in a year we may be talking about how DJI came in in the knick of time to restore hasselblad to solid footing and right the ship, and we also could be talking about SilverFleet wanting a payday from their investment in Phase and Phase not having the value to provide it. One scary part of using a PE firm is they look for big returns, and if they don't see it coming they will walk away and leave a company high and dry to prevent loosing more money on them. I'm not sure what the ratio is now, but I've heard they are happy if 2/3rd's of their investments work out. Scary. We're almost 3 years into the Phase/Silverfleet deal and things seem to be going well, but most PE firms want out in 3 to 5 years.
Hopefully both companies thrive, and continue to push each other. It appears that small format MF may be coming of age, and I will admit Phase has maybe dropped the ball on this one. May not be intentional, as they've had to put so much R&D into the XF platform they may not have been able to tackle a mirrorless version platform.
It would be a sad day to see either one or both falter or fail.
