Who would have thought that by the summer all of these scenarios could play out.
- Foxconn buys Sharps
- Ricoh buys Xerox (the hardware division) , Ricoh gets back all of the dealers they lost to global
- Canon buys Lexmark (the hardware division)
- Samsung buy Sharp Imaging Business unit from Foxconn
Sounds crazy right? By the time most of you read this Sharp will have either accepted the Foxconn offer of the INCJ offer. INCJ is an investment fund that is backed by the government of Japan, the sole intent is to Japanese technology in Japan. Basically, if Sharp accepts the INCJ offer, that makes it's a government bail out of Sharp.
Just yesterday it was reported that both Ricoh and Canon are talking with Lexmark about the hardware division.
Xerox is splitting, one company for the hardware and one for the software. It's my guess along with others that sometime down the road the hardware division will be placed on the market.
If Foxconn gets Sharp, there is a covenant that will have a time limit for how long Foxconn will keep the bumbling Sharp execs on board. In addition one of the other covenants will relate to the break up of the business units of Sharp. My bet is Samung will step in buy Sharp Business Imaging from Foxconn.
Now, I could be wrong on all of these, but isn't it great fun to speculate and think what the future would hold for the industry.
Comments? Would love to hear them.
Art
