Xerox will attempt a hostile takeover of HP Inc.

Shawn Knight

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Staff member
A hot potato: Xerox is done playing nice. HP Inc. has twice rejected the company’s acquisition offers in recent months so now, Xerox is taking a hostile approach by nominating 11 new directors to replace HP’s entire Board of Directors at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting.

John Visentin, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox, said HP shareholders have told them that they believe their acquisition proposal will bring tremendous value. It is why Xerox has lined up $24 billion in binding financing commitments and a slate of “highly qualified” director candidates.

“We believe HP shareholders will be better served by a new slate of independent directors who understand the challenges of operating a global enterprise and appreciate the value that can be created by realizing the synergies of a combination with Xerox,” Visentin said.

Xerox in November offered to buy HP for $22 per share, or $33.5 billion, but HP twice rejected the proposal.

HP in a statement said Xerox’s director nominations are a self-serving tactic to advance its proposal, one that significantly undervalues HP and creates meaningful risk to the detriment of HP shareholders.

Xerox’s list of candidates includes former senior executives from some of the world’s leading companies including Hilton Hotels, Verizon, Aetna and United Airlines, just to name a few. Xerox said they were chosen due to their expertise in overseeing company transformations and combinations.

Worth noting is the fact that HP Inc. is much larger than Xerox. As of writing, Xerox has a market cap of just $7.67 billion compared to HP’s $31.91 billion valuation.

Masthead credit: Boxing gloves by iodrakon. Copier by Katen'ka

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I guess HP selling refillable ink tanks instead of cartridges is cutting into xerox's bottom line.
 
I've been in the photocopier/printer business since the early 80s, when Xerox (or as we called them X-rocks)
was king of the roost. After all, when Chester Carlson "invented" xerography with the dry process using a drum and powered toner in the 30's, he got together with the Haloid bunch that pretty much got Xerox going and then when the 914 came along, it changed how offices did things. No longer did you have to screw with carbon paper, mimeographs etc.
From 1959 until the early 80's, Xerox was on top, but, with the introduction of less expensive models from
Japan started coming along (remember the "it's just as good as a Xerox commercials). I think Xerox, thought they were the king, and no one was going to knock them off their roost.
The Japanese, came in, and blew them out of the room with newer features and options. Plus, as with any large American corporation, I think Xerox had too many "suits" that had no idea how the business worked.
Xerox, still has a pretty good market share of high end production machines, and some of their bigger, office machines but the mid and smaller market is saturated with cheap disposable machines.

Our office sells Xerox, HP, Toshiba, Kip. I just can't see the advantage of Xerox buying HP.
Then, throw the money man Karl Ichon, famous for overseeing the buying of TWA, then selling it off piece by piece to make more money, than the entire TWA business was worth.
I've read in some financial papers that he is messing around with this, perhaps in an effort to boost up the stock price for both companies, then cash out and watch it plummet, then scoop it up for a bargain basement price.
LESS competition is not good for consumers, which is why I'm against most mergers. It screws consumers and employees, for the most part.
 
Are there any advantages of using ink over laser at this point?

The advantage of ink, comes in photography prints. Especially on glossy paper. As far as your
day to day office copier, not really any advantage. If you are in an environment, such as schools,
you really don't want ink. In America, the machine will sit from mid May, to late July never being
used, typically with the hot summer weather, and the ink dries up and then you have to clean it out
before they can use it.
The reason ink is better than most dry process toner in the reproduction of photos, is because the
drops of ink, are on TOP of the paper.
In the dry process (xerography), the toner is PRESSED into the paper fiber, through a combination
of pressure of the fusing rollers, and melting of the toner from the heat of those rollers. This will
flatten the image and even on glossy paper, it won't be as pronounced, as it is with an ink based
print.
 
Are there any advantages of using ink over laser at this point?


Ink costs more per page, but toners are considerably more expensive.

Laser printers are also larger on average which means inkjets are better for home use.

Ink is also better for color and photos.

Laser is better for mass copying in Black and White.
 
Are there any advantages of using ink over laser at this point?
I heard that some of HPs newer ink printer are quite cheap to keep. My personal experience ended when I had it and didnt print regularly, so it needed to clean each time I needed to print. So I threw it away.
 
Here in southeast asia all the players have switched to selling "refillable ink tank inkjet printers" because otherwise it wouldn't sell. canon, epson, brother, hp, etc you name it.

it doesn't matter if the ink dries or the ink clogs the printhead, as long as one cheap inkjet printer is advertised for a 1000 color pages capacity, it will almost always outsell the more expensive color laserjet machine.

I personally have been using such machines from brother and epson, and I can tell the original manufacturer ink still clogs the printhead every so often. the only solutions I found so far are always using the best quality print setting (at cost of time and ink consumption) and/or switching to aftermarket ink supplier.

for a home user I can live with that. and dont forget inkjet printer consume way less energy than an equivalent laserjet machine.
 
HP is long overdue to be taken over and Xerox would be a good, new owner/controller. Maybe they can breath some new life in the old dog .....
While I agree with you, it still seems like a bad idea for Xerox to be the one to do it.
 
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Are there any advantages of using ink over laser at this point?
For home use? No. Only if you are afraid to invest in a decent piece of hardware and instead prefer to buy the cheapest junk possible. B+W cost is comparable, color is a bit pricy, but for $300 you can pick up a color laser that will work for mayn, many years. Or a $100 color inkjet that will work maybe 2 if you are lucky.

For home users, I ALWAYS say go with laser. Outside of special enviroments, inkjet has always, and continues to, suck.
 
Text is always better on laser printers. Photos are always better on Inkjets. Photos are awful on laser printers.
True on the text part, but when the correct paper is used, color laser is infinitely better than inkjet every time, and yes, I've had both. Even Epson's recent hotness doesn't hold a candle to a quality color laser printer..
 
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