Minolta has sold their assets to Sony and Mamiya has sold their assets to Cosmo. There are a lot of unwarranted assumptions that this will mean improvement, greater viability and new design concepts, etc., but not necessarily so.
Years ago, Commodore Amiga produced a unique computer that interfaced easily with television video and was the only computer that was capable of 3D animation and editing in real time using very small drives. That is still the case. Due to bad marketing, the company went out of business and sold its assets to Escom in Europe. There were all kinds of positive predictions at the time, but Escom in a few years sold the Amiga assets to another company and there was no sign that anything was done with either the R. & D. that was sold with the assets or the patents.
So, bottom line is that perhaps Sony and Cosmo will put their purchased new assets to good use to benefit the marketing base created by Minolta and Mamiya, but it is certainly not a sure thing. Retain a healthy skepticism and watch for trends.
Ronnoco