External Alliances and M&A

Since the start of the VISION75, our Medium-term Management Plan in 2004, we have been aggressively advancing capital investment, external alliances and M&A to shift our business structure. We invested about 250 billion yen in M&A from 2006 to March 2008. Active M&A is particularly being pursued to expand business in priority fields and to develop new businesses such as the life science business.
We conduct M&A after determining, under a given expected return criterion, whether Fujifilm's core technologies or businesses (including associated businesses) and the prospective acquisition would generate synergies for continued success. In this fashion, we decided to acquire Toyama Chemical from the medium-to-long term perspective once we had confirmed that this would offer a tremendous business opportunity based on application of the above principles.
The inkjet business is an example of our efforts to expand the fundamental capabilities of existing businesses. Here, we carried out key M&A in the industries of ink and printer heads, which form the core of marking technology. Our specific acquisitions from 2005 to 2006 included the top U.K. industrial ink manufacturer Sericol Group Limited (currently FUJIFILM Sericol UK Limited), the U.K. consumer inkjet printer ink company Avecia Inkjet Limited (currently FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants Limited) and the leading U.S. industrial inkjet printhead manufacturer Dimatix, Inc. (currently FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc.).