Sony top contender for Olympus equity tie: magazine

Tokyo: Sony Corp is the leading contender among firms jostling for an equity stake in Olympus Corp, Japanese business weekly Diamond reported on its website, as the scandal-hit medical equipment maker moves to shore up its finances.Olympus may hold a news conference as early as this week on a possible tie-up with Sony, which would boost its existing 0.03 percent holding in the medical equipment and camera maker to several percent, the magazine said.[caption id="attachment_190424" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The consumer electronics maker is among the leading contenders seeking a stake in the scandal-hit medical equipment maker. Reuters"][/caption]Diamond also quoted an unnamed Sony executive as saying that the consumer electronics maker's chief executive Howard Stringer had already given the green light for a deal.Sony, which supplies image sensors to Olympus, is one of several electronics and precision instruments makers that bankers and media reports have said are interested in a deal as they target the lucrative medical sector, where Olympus holds a dominant global market share in diagnostic endoscopes.Reuters