Olympus: Three questions
THE Olympus scandal claimed its second victim on October 26th, not counting the Japanese camera-maker’s shareholders. Its boss, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, resigned (but refused to step down from the board). His departure follows that of Michael Woodford, the former president, on October 14th. Mr Woodford, a Briton, was sacked by the board after he kicked up a fuss about unusual payments totalling $1.3 billion. Since then Olympus’s share price has collapsed. Mr Kikukawa’s symbolic seppuku was not, therefore, much of a surprise.In 2008 Olympus bought Gyrus, a maker of medical devices, for $2.2 billion. In connection, it paid an advisory fee of $687m to a firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands and another in New York. The owners of these firms are unknown. Olympus also paid $773m to acquire three small, loss-making firms in businesses unrelated to its own. Japanese, British and American authorities are investigating.Mr Kikukawa was replaced by Shuichi Takayama, another Olympus veteran. At a press conference, Mr Takayama defended the company’s payments in the Gyrus deal as well as the other three acquisitions. However, when pressed for specifics, he said he could not comment until Olympus concludes a third-party investigation on the matter, which has yet to begin. Mr Takayama was asked whether any of Olympus’s financial advisers had ties to “anti-social forces...
