Ummm... if anybody wonders how Sony came into this, here's probably why:
"Dr. Hansen was appointed Hasselblad Chairman in March 2009 and CEO from November the same year. He has 26 years of experience in top management positions in the German based optical and opto-electronics firm Carl Zeiss. The last 16 years Dr. Hansen was CEO of the Carl Zeiss Asia Pacific operations based in Japan. In this role Dr. Hansen initiated and developed thriving photographic business co-operations with Japanese corporations such as Sony, Cosina and Kyocera."
The Kyocera adventure didn't end so well, something that must have been among his responsibilities. One can of course wonder how the relationship to Fuji has developed after his change to the top job at Hasselblad.
There's one thing that strikes me with things that have happened in Japan during Mr. Hansen's stay in Japan (off topic, but still):
As far as I know, Zeiss has had a partnership with Sony for a long time, but until 2005, that was mostly limited to video cameras. In 2005/2006, when sony acquired the camera division of Konica Minolta, the need for high quality SLR lenses arose, and several Zeiss lenses were launched during the summer 2006.
Until then, only Contax, made by Kyocera, one of Konica Minolta's competitors, was the only Japanese camera brand using Zeiss SLR lenses. One can easily see that Zeiss must have seen a greater future potential with Sony than with Kyocera/Contax. Can Kyocera's abrupt and rather unexpected exit from the camera business in April 2005 simply have been a result of changing focus from Zeiss side, from Kyocera to Sony, a move that may have been seen as disloyal seen from the Kyocera side?
Just wondering. Dr. Larry Hansen, who is apparently in full control at Hasselblad, must have been actively involved in all those processes. Was he the assassin of Contax so to say?