A Czech boutique investment fund called STARTEEPO Invest just bought 6.7 million shares of Xerox overnight.
They now own 5.15% of the company. That officially makes a group most people in Norwalk couldn't point to on a map the 4th largest shareholder of Xerox.
What is the move?
This isn’t a passive retirement fund quietly collecting dividends. STARTEEPO filed a Schedule 13D. In corporate speak, that means they plan on speaking up. They just bought a ticket to the party and now they (somehow) want to play the music.
Why now?
Because Xerox is currently on the operating table. The company’s stock price looks like a clearance rack. STARTEEPO looked at a business generating (well, trying to) half a billion dollars in free cash flow with a deeply depressed market value and thought (right or wrong): "It's free real estate".
For the Board of Directors: the cozy, quiet boardroom days are over. Carl Icahn left a vacuum when he exited, and the board probably thought they could restructure in peace. Enter František Bostl (STARTEEPO’s chief). The fund has already explicitly stated they want to "discuss board composition and strategy".
Translation: Pack your bags, some of you are getting evicted.
For Xerox Management: expect a massive fire under executive chairs to accelerate, tweak, even change the plans underway. If management can't turn a profit fast enough, this fund will happily find people who claim they can.
Xerox spent years trying to "reinvent" itself into a sleek, modern tech-and-services company; instead, they moved so slowly they became prime bait for a mid-sized European activist fund looking for a cheap, cash-generating target.
Now, Xerox either delivers on its promises immediately, or a fund from Prague is going to dictate the terms of its survival.