Last I checked, Sony had a 40% market share in the mobile device camera sensor market, but OmniVision was also placed quite nicely on the second spot. They had a share of 15.7% last year, 0.5% more than Samsung and they’re looking to consolidate and increase that through a merger with Chinese entities.
It appears that OmniVision stockholders have agreed to sell the company to Chinese investors, according to speculations from stock research sites. That group is being led by Hua Capital Management, owned by the Chinese state. 91.7% of the votes cast agreed to complete the merger with the Chinese part. OmniVision will close the deal in the third of fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016. In the meantime, some regulatory hurdles must be completed, so the transaction must be approved by the US and Chinese authorities having to do with antitrust regulations.
I’ve seen OmniVision sensors a lot on midrange and entry level phones and I’m willing to bet that quite a few popular smartphones out there use their solutions for selfie cameras. From what I remember at some point even some iPhones relied on these sensors. For example the iPhone 4 had such a sensor, but in the meantime Sony has become the favourite supplier for iPhone sensors.
via digitimes
