An unspoken assumption is maybe that "Hasselblad has lost its way because it's owned by DJI now".
I don't think that's the case here. There seem to be few active members at GetDPI who assume that. It may occasionally seem like it's more when that same general theme is repeated again and again when Hasselblad is the topic.
It's interesting that since Victor sold the company in 1976, Hasselblad has had six different companies acquire controlling interest; four of them European and two headquartered in China. It's been the European investment and private equity firms, with no experience in the photo business, which nearly bankrupted the company — twice. In both of those cases; it was companies headquartered in China with experience in the photo business who saved the company, made investments in Hasselblad for their long-term benefit, and made exactly the right decisions to set the business on the right course for the future.
In 1996, UBS Capital, the private equity branch of the Union Bank of Switzerland; acquired controlling interest from Swedish investment firm Incentive AB. Hasselblad had accumulated a great deal of cash over many years and as much of that cash as possible was taken out by Incentive and distributed as dividends prior to selling to UBS. UBS did a leveraged buyout saddling Hasselblad with the debt and declared they were only interested in a 3–7 year ownership window. In the course of a few years, Hasselblad went from being
very well capitalized to severely under capitalized, just as the major switch from film to digital was beginning. The decision was made to close Hasselblad's electronic imaging business and put all of the financial and engineering resources into development of the H-system.
UBS drove Hasselblad to the edge of bankruptcy when Hong Kong based Shriro Group, who had been distributors for Hasselblad in Asia for over 45 years, acquired the company in 2003; the year after the H-system was introduced. Medium format camera manufacturing had already become a money losing business for everyone in it due to insufficient demand and brands were disappearing from the market or in the process of doing so. Any profit was in digital backs, not the camera systems to which they were attached. Shriro made major cuts to get the finances in order and purchased Imacon in 2004 to create a sustainable combined business for both companies which turned the company around financially. Hasselblad focused on a long-term strategy of completely integrated lens + camera + sensor + software solutions, well ahead of the industry curve. Shriro's investments and understanding of the photo market and Hasselblad's engineering and new focus returned them to profitability with a successful strategy.
In 2011, Hasselblad was acquired by German private equity firm Ventizz who believed they had a plan which would triple revenue. They would then make a big short-term profit by selling the company. Yeah, well that didn't work out too well. In fact, they mismanaged the company to the brink of bankruptcy again. DJI began investing in Hasselblad in 2015 and invested more in 2016 which made possible the launch of the H6D-100C and X-system and all of the new cameras and lenses which have followed since. They acquired controlling interest at the beginning of 2017. Again, like Shriro, DJI made the needed investments for a strategic change in direction. This time, the directional shift was to mirrorless which occurred at the right time and led to a turnaround of fortunes and a return to profitability. So, thanks Shriro and DJI for keeping a legendary brand alive and successful with long-term thinking and investments.
