Xerox and HP possible merger update
- Carl Icahn is urging HP Inc. to push ahead with takeover talks with Xerox
o arguing the hardware maker’s standalone plans amount “to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
o Claims that a tie-up between the companies could yield more than $2 billion in synergies
o “It is absurd for the HP board and management team, with such a history of underperformance and missteps, to claim to have had a sudden epiphany and now expect shareholders to trust them to execute a standalone restructuring plan,” Icahn said in the letter, a draft of which was reviewed by Bloomberg.
o “I can say without exaggeration that the combination of HP and Xerox is one of the most obvious no-brainers I have ever encountered in my career -- one where activism should not even be necessary at all because the merits of the combination are so obvious to everybody involved,” Icahn said.
o “I cannot believe that the recalcitrance of HP’s board is driven by any real confidence in its standalone restructuring plan, which the market, shareholders and analysts met with extreme indifference,” he said.
- Icahn is the largest shareholder in Xerox, with a nearly a 11% stake. He also owns 4.2% stake in HP, making him its fifth-largest holder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg
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