I received this email from a Print4Pay Hotel member the other day. @gap
Hello Art,
For the last two or three years investment companies have been buying independent copier dealerships. We've been seeing this all throughout the United States and I know of others in other parts of the world.
The conversation with an industry professional that is smarter than me he suggested that this is a Wall Street ploy being architected by the investment community. The goal is to purchase several different companies and package them together to sell to a major player like Xerox or HP. Imagine an investment company that is purchased 250 million or $500 million worth of independent dealers and then sold them to Xerox. It's not unlike one IKON was sold to Ricoh. It would be a gigantic shift in the market place.
You seem to run in the circles of those that are industry titans and if you have time ask them their opinion of this theory. If this is not the in play I wonder what their opinion is? There must be a reason why they are doing this lately and not for the last 20 years. By the way, the sale of DEX imaging to Staples further supports this investment play.
Thoughts