Konica has announced that they will be withdrawing from camera business and the photo business in an effort to concentrate on more profitable ventures.

In the camera business, Konica will be tranferring assets to Sony including digital SLR assets. They will be withdrawing from the business altogether - this includes film cameras and digitial cameras. The withdrawal will take place on March 31st of this year.

For the photo business, Konica will slowly cease color film and color paper production by March 31st, 2007. They will cease their minilab business by March 31st, 2006.

Finally, the even worse news for Konica employees will be the reduction of the workforce by approximately 3700 employees. Here is the press release.