Panasonic Selling Off Security Camera Factory

What i've heard, Panasonic is going to sell its security camera business...

It sounds like they are trying to sell their camera factory, not necessarily their camera business.  So they want to get out of making their own cameras and expand their Dahua OEM.  They probably realize that they can buy/OEM Dahua cameras cheaper than they can make them themselves and with them losing market share, their factory is just dead weight.

So, they sell off their factory and focus their efforts on software while buying cameras from Dahua.  It makes sense in the big picture. The real question is, what vendor will want to buy their factory, or will another company buy the factory at a huge discount and turn it into making cell phones or something else.  Perhaps Bosch will buy it to expand their production?

Update: USA shipping records show a significant increase in Hikvision shipments to Panasonic. 13 total shipments over the last 2 years but 6 in just the past 4 months.

See Panasonic - Hikvision USA Shipping Records March 2018, screencap below of highlights:

I do not consider companies OEMing as real camera manufacturers.

If you cannot or will not design and produce your own hardware, please quit.

We have no need for five different brands of the same camera models.

Panasonic consolidated Video Insight. As such, now, Panasonic has shifted to sell end-to-end or as Panasonic describes it a 'Unified Surveillance Strategy'.

I wish someone would emphasize this to the sales reps in the field.  There is slightly more action from the Panasonic reps acknowledging the existence of VI than pre-consolidation, but little else.  Why would a rep sell VI for free even if it may be a stronger solution than ASC970 and a bunch of NVRs?  When a product is valued at free how much R&D funding is available to sink into it?

Even though their new cameras such as the AeroPTZ, 2531L, the 4K bullet, and new (non-Dahua) PTZs are great Panasonic is out of date on the recording side of surveillance.  I have to wonder if the factory being closed was producing NVRs and not cameras.

Being the Cutco of CCTV isn't the best business model these days. To many competitors doing the same. 

What if they are selling it to build cameras of their own in Japan?

After Panasonic had bought VideoInsight, we stopped dealing with the product as the new Panasonic ownership seemed to be trying to push us to use their cameras. At the end it seems Video Insight seems to have lost suppliers while Panasonic failed to sell more of their own cameras.

In our testing last year, we confirmed the 'V', or value, series was OEMed from Dahua.

Now, there is a new 'E' or entry level Panasonic series that is starting to be released, a low cost offering that is likely to be OEMed as well.

What a shame.

Sad to see VI get sucked into the bureaucracy of Panasonic. A once aggressive company that could make things happen by doing whatever it could to make customers feel appreciated. I feel for the old VI employee's that have now joined the land of NO being purchased by Panasonic. I hope someone made some $ there on that sell. John did you ever find out what the VI owners were paid to sell to Panasonic?  

Here's what I think about Panasonic. The brand meant everything back in the day.

Every thing I ever bought from them lasted forever. I have a 35 year old boom box!!!

Then I buy a Panasonic Blue Ray streaming device with the worst remote ever made!

It's also glitchy and freezes up often while operating and I hate it compared to Roku.

so a lifetime of love and affinity for a brand is destroyed in one $120 purchase.

If I open the box and put the mach ID on-line, who will be the OEM? Brand MATTERS! 

realistically I highly doubt there is any validity to the claim of panasonic selling off their camera side of the house. I have a feeling they maybe trying to delineate away from any relationship with dahou or hikivision. they could even be revamping their manufacturing to meet lower cost demands, not abnormal for companies as large as panasonic 

Just a quick note: we have now added all Panasonic E-series cameras to the calculator.

With all of the Chinese product invading Panasonic's product line how long until we start to see Analog HD devices?

As has been hinted at preiously, panasonic security still has manufacturing facilities in Japan. They build and moved production to China for lowered costs.. So don't just assume that they have to do contract manufacturing or oem... 

End of an era.