Blackstone is not happy with Leica



The German website manager-magazin.de published an article about the potential replacement of the current Leica Camera CEO Alfred Schopf. I was told that this is not the first and it is not going to be last change in top management. There are rumors that Blackstone is not happy with the current performance of the German camera manufacturer. Some reports even suggest that Blackstone Capital is looking to quickly “dump” their Leica investment and Panasonic is most likely the candidate for replacement. There have been unconfirmed reports that Leica recently posted internal losses in all but 2 global markets which could explain the recent US discounts. There seems to be also some issues with licensing fees for the use of the Leica brand name.