Leica Camera AG, Panasonic sign collaboration agreement
Panasonic Entertainment & Communication Corp., Osaka, Japan, and Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar, Germany, reached an agreement for a new comprehensive business alliance. Both companies agreed to increasingly bundle their core competencies and to develop new technologies and solutions resulting from this collaboration under the name of “L² Technology ” (L squared Technology) which symbolically uses the two „L“ of “ Leica ” and “LUMIX ” in their marketing activities going forward, the announcement said.
L2 Technology will unify the strengths of two brands, Leica and LUMIX, be a symbol of the collaboration by combining the technologies and know-how of the two companies in the fields of new camera and lens products and next-generation software, and create technologies and solutions that deliver new value in the new era.
Through this collaboration, the two companies will jointly invest in new technologies that can be incorporated into camera and lens products and will incorporate jointly developed technologies into each other’s Leica and LUMIX products to further enhance their product capabilities, the company’s announcement said.
“With the arrival of an era in which photos and videos are shared globally in real-time, cameras are required to have the capability to create more impressive and breathtaking expression,” said Akira Toyoshima, CEO of Panasonic Entertainment & Communication Co., Ltd. “I have always been impressed by the high picture quality and the picture-making philosophy that Leica has developed over its long history. I am very pleased and excited to continue working with Leica to develop technology that will enable people around the world to share their emotions.”
“We have been working with Panasonic for many years in a spirit of partnership and trust, and their extensive expertise is undisputed,” said Matthias Harsch, CEO of Leica Camera AG. “The combination of our competencies in L2 Technology is another milestone in the partnership and proves that the best way to meet today’s challenges in the camera market is not to segment and specialize, but to deepen capabilities in order to jointly create solutions for the future.”
The cooperation between Leica Camera AG and Panasonic Corp. goes back to August 2000 and has been expanded several times Initially, the companies had signed a cooperation agreement for lenses of digital, audio-visual equipment, and in 2001 the decision was made to cooperate on digital cameras. Since then, the companies have steadily expanded their technological cooperation. In 2018, together with Sigma, the “L-Mount Alliance” was founded, a cooperation enabling Panasonic, Sigma and, since 2021, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH, to use the L-mount standard developed by Leica for their own developments.