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Amana Group acquires Digital Archive Japan, Inc.
Tokyo-based Amana Group has acquired the Japanese royalty free production company, Digital Archive Japan (DAJ.) Amana, one of Japan's largest producers and marketers of both RM and RF stock imagery, has made strategic acquisitions of a number of graphics related companies in its effort to become the "total visual solution experts" in the Japanese market. In addition, the company seeks to improve its profit margin from its present 4.8% to 10% or more by 2009. The company hopes the acquisition of DAJ, one of the leading producers of RF in the country, will help achieve that goal.
Several of the biggest Japanese companies engaged in the production and distribution of only royalty free imagery include private companies for which financial details are not available. Nonetheless, three companies are widely believed to dominate the RF sector; DataCraft, Design Exchange Co, Ltd. (DEX,) and DAJ. DEX, however, has changed its strategy in recent years, investing less in photography and more in the telecommunications industry, leaving the two top spots in RF to DataCraft and DAJ. The acquisition of DAJ by Amana, therefore, significantly strengthens Amana’s position in the RF sector in that market.
The newly combined companies had previous connections that most likely aided the transaction. Mr. Takayuki Sasaki, Amana’s manager of stock photo content development, also served on DAJ’s board of directors. As a result of the acquisition, Mr. Hitoshi Yamada, former President of DAJ, has resigned and Mr. Shuichi Iinuma has taken his place.
Posted in: News, Stock Art Buyers
Comments(1)
post a comment »Okinawa, February 11, 2008 [#]
Is that the largest agency for images in japan?