Earlier this week, Arri announced that it would be closing two facilities, both of which were focused on lighting production. Seeing Arri significantly reduce or outright exit the lighting industry makes a lot of sense if it wants to get acquired. As a bit of background, I started out my career in the photographic lighting business at Photoflex. Even back in 2011, it was clear that the best innovations in lighting were coming out of China. In fact, one of Photoflex’s last products was a battery-powered strobe that was a rebranded, off-the-shelf option from a white label manufacturer in China. Since Photoflex went out of business (and the brand was acquired and left to rot on the vine), the industry has contracted significantly. It was bad on the photography side, but worse on the cinema side. It does not surprise me, therefore, that Arri is making this change. “Like many companies in the film industry, Arri is undergoing a significant transformation to address lasting shifts in market demand while reinforcing its core strengths,” Arri spokesperson Kevin Schwutke told Bloomberg over email regarding the layoffs and closures. Earlier this year when it was reported that Arri was looking to be acquired, the company had also brought on the consultancy AlixPartners to “streamline its business.” It’s hard not to see lines connecting here. But if Arri wants to be acquired, it does need to shed what a potential buyer might categorize as dead weight. Arri’s strongest business is its cameras, and the number of brands that would be interested in acquiring that business isn’t big it’s a pretty short list, actually. I do think there is a perfect fit for the acquisition, though: Canon. Canon recently watched its historical rival Nikon suddenly scoop up RED and that deal has almost immediately paid dividends for the company. Meanwhile, Canon continues to support RED endeavors with the RF mount, which is the only case where Team Red provides full access to its mount and autofocus lenses outside of its walled garden. It’s incredibly ironic that Canon refuses to let Sigma or Tamron make lenses to support its full-frame RF cameras while at the same time, its biggest rival owns a contract that allows it to use that same technology on cameras. While speculation, of course, I’m absolutely positive that Canon isn’t happy about this arrangement, and I’m even more positive that when the news broke that Nikon had acquired RED, Canon offices around the world were in stunned shock. They’ve played nice publicly, but this was a huge blow to them. Canon specifically had not been targeting high-end cinema with its cameras because of its relationship with RED, and overnight, they were suddenly supporting their biggest rivals through that relationship. Canon, I am sure, has been thinking about a way to get a “win” in cinema ever since. Sony has Venice, Nikon has RED, and those two share a small piece of the whole pie, of which Arri has the majority. If Canon were to pick up Arri, it could immediately regain what it lost with RED and much more. But the reason Arri is even available to be purchased (and why RED was sold) was because the cinema market is not what can be described as “healthy.” If Canon were to do this, it would need to be in such a way that it would be forced to absorb the least amount of debt or dead capital as possible. There is no chance Canon or any other possible interested buyer would pick up Arri if it meant that it had to also take on anything outside of the camera division. Canon would be acquiring Arri for mostly prestige and optics (with some level of business, too), and while that certainly has value, the state of the global economy and the cinema market specifically means it would have to be very careful about what it spends money on right now, lest it sink the whole company. It is also unlikely Arri would be willing to accept as low an acquisition price as Nikon got. It makes a lot of sense for Arri to divest from lighting, especially when viewed through the lens of acquisition hopes. It still might not be enough, but it does sweeten the deal.
https://petapixel.com/2025/11/21/arris-move-to-exit-lighting-might-be-a-last-ditch-effort-to-get-acquired/
Arri’s Move to Exit Lighting Might Be a Last-Ditch Effort to Get Acquired
