Some say merger might save Xerox. I don't really think so. I don’t believe there’s anything that could save this company, but I may be thinking too negatively. Anyways, I don't intend to be here much longer but I wonder what you think a merger might do for this company, hypothetically speaking?
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FreeFlow Print Server
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xxf+1eLHuOoF, very good post. One quibble is that JJ sold off FreeFlow Print Server to EFI (and now magically is ceo there! funny how that works). spot on otherwise.
Kodak declared bankruptcy just about 10 years ago to the day. Traditional Xerox probably has a similar trajectory, still around for years, but like kodak MUCH smaller. Other new stand up X companies will be spun off for cash to some suckers well before that. CI is not getting any younger and most likely is getting impatient waiting to see real ROI. Could Lexmark buy Webster, or dark horse Fuji swoops in?? No other real options for print.
The thing that's ki----g the Xerox is something we're doing - something that ALL companies are doing.
Remember when we all used to print a PowerPoint slide deck before walking to the conference room for a meeting or conference call? Or when working on a project? Or throwing together some data for a discussion?
Now we look at the presentation on a Microsoft Teams call, and we might print one slide out of 30 in a deck.
We used to get reports that would be printed and reviewed, but now they're all displayed online in one of the different dashboard systems and exported to Excel.
It's been at least 8 or 10 years since I needed or wanted to print anything for work. And there are millions of companies world wide that have changed the same way as well.
Print is dying, and in some cases it's already dead. Sure, there will always be some applications for it, but for many customers and segments it's already been taken off life support.
They had the right idea when they acquired ACS but Ursula really bungled that. She never made it one company. Maybe that was by design. But the copier business is dying. Printing in general is cut way back. Maybe more 3D printing. The real problem with any corporation is the outsize compensation for the C-level suite and catering only to investors. 30 years ago, investors also mattered, but so did the clients and employees that kept the clients happy and people in general were happier because they felt well compensated and could afford basic needs. Healthcare costs have skyrocketed and the real solution there is to have corporations pay into a pot for every employee (whether they work a 10 or 40 hours a week) for national medicare and then sweeten the deal by offering gap coverage to add caps to that coverage as well as vision, dental and life. Can you imagine how many more entrepreneurs there could be if health coverage wasn't tied to employment? People are just really waking up during this covid thing to the value of their own time and how badly they need health coverage and PTO during a world-wide pandemic. No wonder congress doesn't want us to have coverage as good as they have or that of 37 other 1st world countries. How could they line their pockets with payola from the health lobby groups and how could Xerox retain employees if they could afford to lose their coverage?
The only thing that can possibly save this company is for a bigger bear than Icahn to do a hostile takeover and immediately dump every member of senior management.
Hard to disagree with TTX.
Xerox was a good ride for a while. The training was excellent but that ship sailed a long time ago. There are just simply too many players in the office/production print market. There is going to be industry consolidation, it's just a matter of time. Xerox does have some valuable patents but it also has a terrible balance sheet and God favors the army with the best artillery. Canon is probably the strongest out of all of the competitors.
I've been out of the industry for a while now but the impressions counts must be near collapse. A large portion of the public will not be returning to the office when the Pandemic ends, that means far fewer copiers are going to be needed. Which means lease returns vs. equipment sales, no service and no supplies. Supplies are the profit driver for the manufacturers and with the steep decline in impressions it must be putting some serious pressure on every company. The bottom line is they are all going to be smaller companies going forward and only the strongest will survive. Good luck to all.
Nobody is buying it. Would have happened by now.
They should invent someone revolutionary that could take the company into the future. Like a mouse. Or a gui interface for the next generation computer.
And then not give it away because they were a bunch of blockheads who were arrogant enough to think copiers would never die or that they’d be long retired before that happened.
Xerox was a goner the moment DD and CI decided to blow up the Fuji deal. They thought they could lipstick this pig quickly and sell it. Little did they know how absolutely decimated and inept the senior C level were who led this company into ruin with their ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’, cronyism and nepotism for 2 generations . That’s a fact. The good ole days where poor performers were hardly ever fired because we were all friends. Bad for business. Xerox is a company not a family.
Mandatory Lean 6ix Sigma Certifications.
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Mandatory Lean 6ix Sigma Certifications.
FreeFlow Print server, etc.
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I heard Xerox and Polaroid were merging? The combined company will be called POLOX.
Xerox had their opportunity with Fuji a few years back. That merger made sense in the case for the following reasons. Fuji was their long time partner. Products, parts and supplies came from there.
Next Fuji was better diversified. They did not have all their eggs in one basket like Xerox does. Fuji is in in Medical Imaging! Big market and always a need!
Last Fuji had the funds! It had the capital to invest and combine technologies that would have benefited the two companies. If this merger had happened Xerox would have been in a better spot today compared where it is now.
Print is a massively declining industry. So Xerox either pivots to a new industry, which could buy them a much longer lifespan depending on what they choose and how well it's implemented, or they buy up all the smaller players to become king of print, which may let them survive a little longer.
It's no secret that Carl is going to break up the company and sell it off. Just look at Northwest Airlines for his play book.
He's sold the buildings, FreeFlow Print server, etc. Xerox only makes the Baltoro, the Nuvera, and the iGen. Everything thing else is 'OEM' from Fuji or Lexmark. Literally that's it.
R&D (an expense) is no more. Nothing being developed anywhere. The company has been broken into 3 pieces (hardware/Software/Finance) because no one wants the whole company. Kinda like breaking up your old college car to sell it ("I don't want the whole car, but I'll buy the Engine and the hubcaps off 'ya!). Keep selling parts until the scrap guy hauls it away.
Just like the Pilots, the Stewardesses, and the Ground Crew of Northwest, Xerox employees will slowly move to other companies, retire, or fade away, clutching our 5-10-20-30 year Xerox Pins, and getting together once a year at Christmas at the favorite watering ho-e to talk about the good old days.
There won't be a "Merger" as much as a "Company buys Xerox" and it will be absorbed into oblivion. Remember DEC? The company that Compaq bought? Remember Compaq? The company that "merged" with HP? You may have to look them up on Wikipedia.
That's what will happen to Xerox. You'll see some flashy Press release that talks about "A Great Time for these two Technology Powerhouses..." and "Pooling Resources....", etc etc. they can just copy the Press release from the DEC/Compaq merger... change a few names, and there.
What they are really doing is copying the Press Release from the Northwest airlines era...
I loved working for Xerox, still Proud about it. Xerox paid for my house, put my kid through College, taught me everything I know about the job I do now, after they sent me to HCL, and then let me go. But in the end, (As I tell everyone at the Annual Reunion) I'll probably outlive Xerox. No Merger of a company that makes a soon to be outdated product with another company that makes the same outdated Product will save Xerox. Too many manufacturers out there right now making a product for fewer and fewer customers. The Pandemic proved that people could live without print.
Still think the copier will live on forever? Ask Kodak how that mindset about their Camera worked out for them.
Convert the buildings in Webster to grow weed. Get in on the ground floor of the legal sale. Copiers are the new buggy whips. Wake up and smell the weed!