Hasselblad is a legendary camera manufacturer.

The camera was used on the moon in 1969, and reached cult status after this event.

The company used to be situated in this building, located in central Gothenburg, Sweden.

Hasselblad left the building in 2003 and it was turned into luxury apartments.

Flyttade in här 2003The company moved over the river and into this

recently finished building…Flyttade in här 2003

Photos: www.jornmark.se

Titanic sails onTitanic sails on…

Two years later, Hasselblad had left the building andTwo years later, Hasselblad had left the building and it stood empty until 2007 when it had finally been

reconstructed in order to fit the new guest.

The shift to digital imaging had put the company in deep troubleput the company in deep trouble.

30

20

25

10

15

0

5

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Number of film and digital cameras sold in theNumber of film and digital cameras sold in the United States (guess which one is digital!)

Två år senareTvå år senare…

är byggnaden tom!… är byggnaden tom!

It would not be an exaggeration to say that things did not end up as the company had expected.

Wh did thWhy did the company move here

anyway?anyway?

Moving into a new, fancy building, in the y g,

midst of a technological

revolution and a rapid decline in sales…

… It all seems a bit weird.

Två år senareTvå år senare…

There were several reasons for why this happened…

The former building wasn’t exactly low class either.

Hasselblad used to own this building.

A camera manufacturer with an annual profit of about 50-60 MSEK owning

facilities worth 110-150 MSEK…

It doesn’t seem to be the ideal… It doesn’t seem to be the ideal way of using capital.

(The Hasselblad stock grew at a furious pace during(The Hasselblad stock grew at a furious pace during the real estate bubble in Sweden 1986-1990 since

the company was now valued as a real estate firm)

Anyway, the new owner that bought Hasselblad in 1996 intended to do a ’leveraged buyout’, i.e. acquire1996 intended to do a leveraged buyout , i.e. acquire a company with borrowed money, sell it later on and

obtain a high return on equity.

For such an owner it was obvious that Hasselblad should not own its properties.

Hasselblad therefore started to look for a new placeHasselblad therefore started to look for a new place, where one could rent, instead of own.

This work was initiated around 1998. Different alternati es ere in estigated b t it tookalternatives were investigated, but it took

more time than anticipated…

In the meantime, Hasselblad struggled to

finalize its new camera system.

This work alsoThis work also took more time than expectedthan expected.

Revenues and profits started to decline…

Bottom line for Hasselblad (MSEK)( )

The new building was finished in 2003 at the time when Hasselblad started to reach a

state of bankruptcy.

The H1 was now finalized and the company moved over the river and into this building g

in summer 2003, which created further delays in the production.

Invigt av hans majestätInvigt av hans majestät

A big house warming event was held and the King of Sweden inaugurated the building.

Then the party was over.

The H1 did not become thebecome the

success Hasselblad hadHasselblad had

expected.

No more ace to play.y

Layoff after layoff after layoff.

At one point, each employee had 140 square meters of space.

The employees at Hasselblad referred to the building as ’the glass palace’.

In 2004-05 Hasselblad left the palace and moved to a smaller, more moderate building a few blocks away.

The original intention to sell Hasselblad’s facilitiesThe original intention to sell Hasselblad s facilities and move somewhere else wasn’t a bad one.

But planning is difficult underBut planning is difficult under conditions of rapid change.

SourcesSources

Internal documents from 1980-1994Annual reportsAbout 100 hours of interviewsAbout 100 hours of interviews

A big thank you!

I tt ib tiImage attributions

www jornmark sewww.jornmark.se

Christian Sandström is a PhD student at Chalmers

University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He g,writes and speaks about disruptive innovation and

technological changetechnological change.

www.christiansandstrom.orgchristian sandstrom@chalmers sechristian.sandstrom@chalmers.se