TOKYO, October 15, 2004 — Canon Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Canon Sales Co., Inc. ("Canon Sales") and Canotec Co., Inc. ("Canotec"), joint equity shareholders of Niigata Canotec Co., Inc. ("Niigata Canotec"), to acquire all outstanding shares of Niigata Canotec, by which Niigata Canotec will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon, effective January 1, 2004.
Under Phase II of the Excellent Global Corporation Plan, which concludes in 2005, Canon has forwarded structural reforms in the areas of development, production, distribution and marketing with the aim of becoming No. 1 in all of the company's major businesses. As part of these reforms, Canon has targeted the further strengthening of networking and imaging technologies as a means of building a framework to support the continuous timely creation of innovative and attractive new product offerings.
Until now, Niigata Canotec has contributed to enhancing the networking and imaging capabilities of Canon products, providing the entire Canon Group with outstanding software applications, primarily in the area of printing solutions.
By making Niigata Canotec a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon Inc., the company, as part of its efforts to strengthen software development capabilities, aims to raise the level of its technical capacity and improve development efficiency by enabling closer coordination between Niigata Canotec and Canon's research and development operations.
| Company name: | Niigata Canotec Co., Inc.
Following acquisition, the company name will be changed to: Canon Imaging System Technologies Inc. |
| Date of incorporation: | January 1990 |
| Business activities: | Research, development and sales of printer firmware and software,
printer peripherals, and application software |
| Location of head office: | Niigata Ekinan Center Bldg.
1-24 Yoneyama, Niigata-shi, Niigata prefecture |
| Representative: | Masami Nishimaki |
| Capital: | ¥ 100 million |
| Equity structure: | As of Oct. 15, 2004: Canon Sales Co., Inc.: 67.5% / Canotec Co., Inc.: 32.5%
As of Jan. 1, 2005: Canon Inc.: 100% |
| No. of employees: | 183 * |
| Net sales: | ¥ 2,800 million * |
* As of the end of December 2003
