By West McDonald, Vice President of Business Development, Print Audit & Owner, FocusMPS

Some big news quietly hit the wire last week that Lexmark International Inc. had decided to work with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to “explore strategic alternatives.”  What this means exactly is anybody’s guess but one thing we know for certain is that it’s not about maintaining the status quo.  Lexmark has, historically, been one of the strongest providers of printing devices and solutions the world has ever known.  For those in the office imaging business, Lexmark and Hewlett Packard printing devices are de facto standards.  The news of Lexmark investigating “alternatives” is a very, very big deal. Industry changing big.

HP (Hewlett Packard) is undergoing its own set of challenges.  Arguably the largest producer of single function printers in the world, the company recently split out the imaging and print business into HP, Inc. which was slated to go live after the spinoff completion on November 1st, 2015.  This new offshoot includes the PC business as well, although 80% of profits come from the imaging group.  Not all is rosy here either as Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski states that HP’s imaging group will experience pressure due to “fundamental challenges related to secular declines in PCs and printing.”  Good times abound.   read the rest of this awesome article from West here