Is Xerox a Buyout Target?

[prwhite]

With the stock price dropping down to only the high teens, Xerox is a potential takeover target and HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) might be an interesting suitor.
Read more about this here

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

With the stock price dropping down to only the high teens, Xerox is a potential takeover target and HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) might be an interesting suitor.
Read more about this here

*fingers crossed*

 

[Ynot_UK]

I wonder why the Seeking Alpha journalist who penned the article bought the image of an old Konica Minolta MFP From Getty, instead of a Xerox

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

I wonder why the Seeking Alpha journalist who penned the article bought the image of an old Konica Minolta MFP From Getty, instead of a Xerox

Because being a journalist in current year is a joke.

 

[kslight]

The cynical person in me says if anything, nobody will buy them at this stage, and eventually Xerox will just get bought out by an East Asian electronics manufacturer, and you will see all kinds of random Xerox branded junk at wal mart like low rent flat screen TVs, air fryers, and hair dryers. Similar to what happened to Polaroid.

As of the last decade or more, I’m not sure what print related technology Xerox has that the competition doesn’t have equal or better. I heard Xerox held some patents over the competition maybe, but the vast majority of their product line has seemed pretty stagnant for some time. Probably the most valuable item Xerox has is the name recognition alone, and the (from what i have seen) declining customer base.

 

[chriscozi]

Two words - Carl Icahn

 

[BigSi]

You might be interested to know Xerox has already been purchased by FujiFilm in this part of the world. (Australia/New Zealand). As a side issue I see you guys have been having trouble getting Xerox consumables for quite some time!
I haven't noticed any problems with my v2100. I know our Xerox is a separated company to your Xerox.

 

[Windward]

The results of HP purchasing Xerox would be a disaster for small printers around the globe. The COVID pandemic has already taken its toll across the industry but there is another trend that continues to put us at a disadvantage. As Kslight mentions, "the vast majority of their product line has seemed pretty stagnant for some time." I believe this is true of all manufacturers of digital toner equipment as they focus on big-iron inkjet machines. With all their R&D energy in that arena, there are only incremental improvements in the quality and efficiency of the machines we use. Xerox users have suffered with toner and drum problems for about two years; an issue that should have been resolved if the company was focused on this market. Combining Xerox and HP will further diminish our choices and increase prices for all users.

 

[TJPrinter]

You might be interested to know Xerox has already been purchased by FujiFilm in this part of the world. (Australia/New Zealand). As a side issue I see you guys have been having trouble getting Xerox consumables for quite some time!
I haven't noticed any problems with my v2100. I know our Xerox is a separated company to your Xerox.

I believe this is true of all manufacturers of digital toner equipment as they focus on big-iron inkjet machines. With all their R&D energy in that arena, there are only incremental improvements in the quality and efficiency of the machines we use. Xerox users have suffered with toner and drum problems for about two years; an issue that should have been resolved if the company was focused on this market. Combining Xerox and HP will further diminish our choices and increase prices for all users.

If there is a takeover then Fuji would be the only solution for the smaller print shop. I agree 100% that no one has really made any significant improvements in the digital toner market. Minor improvements have been made but nothing as significant as what’s going on with inkjet.

Xerox has been working very hard to continuously insist that the toner/drum incidents are isolated cases and don’t represent the majority of users. We know this is not fact and that users in the Fuji market have not suffered from the same blunders. So why is it so important that Xerox won’t admit that the problem is widespread? It would seem that they either don’t care or they have other plans for the light and medium production markets that are affected.

 

[ReprographicsConsultant]

Unless Xerox can be purchased at a fraction of its current market cap, my question would be..... why would any company want to buy a copier manufacturer when we all know that "prints-on-paper" is in a declining mode? Years back, I used to print "to paper" everything I typed (Word files, Excel files, etc etc). Today, I rarely "print-to-paper" anything.....I print to pdf files and save or transmit those. I don't think I am any different than "the average Joe". I formerly owned two of the larger "reprographics" companies in the U.S. I've been doing consulting in the industry since I sold and retired in late 2007. I do a great deal of "sales results comparison" work in my industry. For companies I've studied, it's very easy to see that the quantity of small-format b/w and color imaging (copies or digital prints) is not in a growth mode. The opposite is the case, from what I've seen and studied.

 

[Lorenzo lab guy]

Fuji kind of tried to take over Xerox a while back when they worked to completely own the Fuji / Xerox joint venture. There was a big battle and it didn't happen. Since Fuji manufactures many of the advanced color Xerox machines they have some leverage. They have announced they will be selling Revoria brand printers in some markets that look very very very much like Xerox press printers. They are now allowed to do this because of the breakup of the Fuji / Xerox joint ventures. We actually got our Versant from Fuji Graphics and like the dealership experience from Fuji much better than Xerox. If Fuji decides to sell Revoria printers in the USA I think Xerox will just fade into irrelevance. We have dealt with Fuji since 1983 in our photo lab division and I can tell you their staying power is hard to beat. They crushed Kodak.

 

[TJPrinter]

why would any company want to buy a copier manufacturer when we all know that "prints-on-paper" is in a declining mode? Today, I rarely "print-to-paper"

Xerox was once an innovator of print technology driven by thousands of talented employees. Being an innovator requires investments in R&D and like so many other corporation Xerox is no longer driven by innovation but rather stockholder greed.

Sure, the print industry is shrinking and it will continue to do so. On the other hand digital printing has grown and continues to grow at a faster pace than the overall economy. Digital printing encompasses so much more than just electrophotography and printing on just paper, Xerox has failed to make investments to move forward in digital printing. But hey no problem, stockholders can just move on to the next corporation to suck the life out of.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

But hey no problem, stockholders can just move on to the next corporation to suck the life out of.

What do you mean, isn't Carl Icahn a wonderful person?

 

[kslight]

Xerox was once an innovator of print technology driven by thousands of talented employees. Being an innovator requires investments in R&D and like so many other corporation Xerox is no longer driven by innovation but rather stockholder greed.

Sure, the print industry is shrinking and it will continue to do so. On the other hand digital printing has grown and continues to grow at a faster pace than the overall economy. Digital printing encompasses so much more than just electrophotography and printing on just paper, Xerox has failed to make investments to move forward in digital printing. But hey no problem, stockholders can just move on to the next corporation to suck the life out of.

The sad part is Xerox was once an innovator of technology period, instead basically gave their best ideas away to Apple / Microsoft etc because they couldn’t see two feet in front of them.