Ricoh agrees to buy Pentax from Hoya

Engadget has reported that Hoya, one of the largest glass makers in the world, has sold its Pentax camera business to Ricoh. Hoya acquired Pentax in 2007 and will retain Pentax's medical instruments business. Pentax has partnered with Samsung for DSLR product development since 2005, and it's unclear whether that partnership will remain in place once Ricoh takes over. Pentax has also had some recent success with projects that were apparently fully developed in-house, such as the 645D medium format camera and the new Q, touted by Pentax to be the world's smallest digital camera with interchangeable lenses. Ricoh's acquisition of Pentax is scheduled to be completed in October of this year.