More information on the Olympus Imaging sale.

https://www.dpreview.com/interviews/1110652776/olympus-interview-we-are-extremely-grateful-to-all-of-our-customers-for-their-loyalty-and-support

VP of Global Strategy did an interview with Dpreview. Said, "First, I would like to stress that the sale of the Imaging Division does not mean that we will withdraw from the imaging business. We will continue to offer unique and exciting products. " It appears that Oly will continue to produce high end product and reduce the entry level consumer oriented product. In the past Oly had 3 tiers of optics; kit lenses, premium lenses (weather proof, variable aperture and plastic construction) and PRO lenses (weather sealed, fixed aperture and all metal construction). They have already rolled kit and premium together under the Zuiko brand possibly preparing to scrap the kit lenses. This is similar to an interview with the UK sales manager who said there were no changes and everything was business as usual.

Reading between the lines it seems to me that Olympus will maintain a relatively large minority interest in NewCo and be able to influence the direction of that entity.

Pure speculation on my part but I think that the new 'activist' board members at Olympus corp forced the sale to get around some of the strong employee protections in Japan. Selling the company and having it restructure as a completely different corporate entity will allow JIP to "right size" company personnel to make it more profitable. The imaging division also desperately needs a new marketing strategy. Since the OM days the product line was never marketed as well as the competition. When I read articles in Photo media that say things like "Olympus just couldn't innovate fast enough to compete . . ." it tells me two things; the author doesn't have a clue about the product and that's because Oly didn't do a good job informing the media/public about what the product is capable of.

Having said all that, the medical division has relied heavily on the imaging division for R&D in optics, software, processors and manufacturing. Could it be that Corporate is 'selling' the division to restructure and re-market it into profitability so as to buy it back at some future date?

All I can say for sure is that the product line will not go away.