Today marks the end of an era. The technology company Xerox announced this morning that they have been officially acquired by Fujifilm. The 55 year-old joint agreement between the two companies has been restructured, giving 50.1% of shares to Fujifilm. Xerox who used to be the industry leader in print and copy technology, has fallen on hard times recently with continued decline in the office industry. Additionally competitors like Cannon and Epson have moved into the limited industry space, slowing sales and reducing prices, all while digital document sharing is becoming more prevalent.
However there was a time however when Xerox was the undisputed king of office equipment. The word xerox became synonymous with the idea of copying a document, to the point that the trademark was challenged as a general term, but upheld by an appellate court.
This agreement comes after recent unrest from shareholders, calling for a new board of directors and a shakeup in trade deals due to recent business practice investigations. The new company, Fuji Xerox, will still be traded on the New York Stock Exchange despite the Japanese ties, and will be worth an estimated 18 billion dollars. They also announced plans to shift more strongly into the medical imaging space where profit margins are often higher, as well as developments in artificial intelligence.
Along with the positive however, was the announcement that the new company will be cutting 10,000 jobs in Japan and China to save on costs. more and more companies are beginning to lay off Asian workers to cut margins, but this will be the largest in years.
Along with the pedigree in office equipment, the company has a history in personal computing. They created the modern computer mouse and GUI, both of which were purchased by Apple in 1979 and developed into what would become the Apple Macintosh, the computer that invented the idea of modern personal computing.
I am seeing this announcement with some sadness. I have great respect for companies that manage to innovate and adapt for long periods, and seeing them slowly disappear into conglomerates is somber. While this is only a new stage of development for the company, it is creating a new massive player in an industry with already few options available. Hopefully however, this change will be positive for both the consumer, and the industry.
While it is pretty sad to see something that flourished for decades finally disappear, I think this was the best move for Xerox. Eventually they would have been driven into the ground by other more powerful office companies, so this might have been their best choice. Hopefully Xerox will become as big of a name as it used to be, but we will have to wait.
ReplyDeleteI commend Xerox for their decades of innovation and development. But I think it's inevitable that in times of financial downturn, companies get bought out by bigger companies. Which is not always a bad thing! It means layoffs and decreased specialization, sure, but it also allows new collaboration and larger markets. Such is the nature of the capitalist system. I think it's cool that more and more companies are investing in AI by the way.
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