Just want I needed today was some blockbuster news about Xerox, Fuji Film, Fugi Xerox and HP. Don't these people know I have a quota to reach by the end of the year!
If you've been hiding all day and not staying in touch with industry events, today was one of those days that has everyone talking.
Early this AM a press release comes out that states Xerox and Fuji Film has reached a settlement in their law suit. That's the one where Fuji Film sued Xerox because Xerox backed out of the sale.
Xerox has agreed to see it 25% stake in Fuji Xerox to Fuji Film (a joint venture developed many years ago) for something like $2.2 billion dollars. Keep in mind that Fuji Film filed a lawsuit for 2 billion or so in damages when Xerox backed out of the sale. Fuji Xerox is now 100% owned by Fuji Film and Xerox has an agreement in place where they can still purchase office MFP's (A4 & A3) for "x" amount of time. In addition Fuji Film drops the lawsuit against Xerox. Xerox also agreed to sell Xerox its stake in another smaller joint venture with Fuji Xerox to Fujifilm.
Big Takeaway
The biggest takeaway I read was the one where Fujifilm Chief Executive Shigetaka Komori stated “We can now expand our sales territory...and launch new products,” because Fuji Xerox will now be able to sell copiers not just to Xerox, but also to other brands in the United States and Europe".
For me this is HUGE! Somewhere down the road Xerox will have to compete with their own devices. I'm an old hand at that game been fighting it for years with Ricoh Direct and all of the dealers that sell Ricoh in New Jersey.
Thoughts
One of my first thoughts is that other manufacturers can now purchase these MFP's from Fuji Xerox. Thus if one of the copier manufacturer has a poor showing in color A4, they can OEM those devices from Fuji Xerox. The same will hold true for A3 color, A4 black and A3 balck MFP's. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that some traditional copier manufacturers have already made the call to Fuji Xerox to fill gaps in their MFP line.
My second thought is that a Mega Dealer approaches Fuji Xerox and cuts a sole source deal here in the US. Branding for the MFP's would or should have the Mega Dealer logo and brand. Think about that one for a moment...... are you done thinking yet? Let's maybe think about Flex, Dex or maybe Marco, imagine the ramification of one of the major copier manufacturers losing one of those accounts.
I'm also thinking that sometime in the near future the Xerox name is going bye-bye also.
Threads
Here's some of the traction that we had on Linkedin this afternoon.
Xerox Wants HP
Did you see the last thread from Don Quick?
Yea, while I was out on appointments I think the Wall Street Journal released news that Xerox was putting in an offer to buy HP! I was like WTF! Just a few minutes ago the Miami Herald reported that HP did receive an offer from Xerox.
Today was a good day for those that are holding HP and Xerox stock both were up on the market.
While I'm far from being any type of an accountant I did read one article that stated Xerox could pull off the financing for this purchase and that they had acquired financing. Xerox has something like 928 million is cash, then the 2.2 billion from Fuji Film, however they have a debt service due in December of 528 million. I'm guessing they would need 30 billion in financing.
I asked myself what would be the benefit to Xerox other than making their shareholders a boat load of cash. Xerox gets Indigo technology, Samsung technology, HP technology, and the cash cow of the consumables. In addition they would not have to purchase MFP's from Fuji Film in the future.
I'm sure there are many other benefits if this sale happens. At this point I think that the sale is a bit iffy. But we've seen crazier things happen in our industry over the years.
I don't think anyone saw this coming, and kudos to John Visentin and team if they can pull this off.
-=Good Selling=-
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