Watching from the sidelines it’s looked pretty messy as Canon has struggled with the transition from DSLR to mirrorless, so it must have been even more torrid on the inside.
As the compact system camera revolution took hold, Canon was in the unique position of being – by a country mile – the biggest seller of DSLRs. It was a hugely profitable business and when the early direction in mirrorless cameras was on the most compact designs possible – think Nikon 1 and Pentax Q – it didn’t seem remotely under threat. Canon, quite rightly under the circumstances, thought it was invincible no matter what.
