Less than three months after its rival Hewlett Packard, it is the turn of Xerox to split into two. The American manufacturer of printers and photocopiers should be divided before the end of 2016, in two independent companies listed on the stock market, one oriented document management and one devoted to services.
“The realities of the market today require agility and greater flexibility, an ability to innovate and adapt technology to constantly changing customer needs, and a more precise approach efficient operations and capital allocation, “explained the group in a statement.
Under the leadership of Ursula Burns, the company has shifted in the services market 2010, affilated with the acquisition of computer services. The group, whose market value has fallen by over 30% over the last 12 months, in fact seeks to expand its software and services businesses to offset slower demand printers.
Xerox plans to provide three seats of the board of the new service company (out of nine) to activist investor Carl Icahn, who entered the capital of the company in November last year (he now owns 8.13%). A few weeks earlier, Xerox announced a strategic review of all its activities following poor quarterly results. The Xerox CEO Ursula Burns said Friday on CNBC that “Carl Icahn had no part in the decision to split the company.”
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This has not prevented the billionaire investor to express its satisfaction on Twitter, following the announcement of Xerox: “ I applaud and I respect Ursula Burns makes what it believes to be the will of the shareholders, as John Donahoe did for Ebay (of which he is CEO, Ed) and Paypal “.
Under pressure from billionaire eBay had separated from its subsidiary Paypal payment while Manitowoc has split its floods manufacturing activities from those of catering equipment. Despite what Ursula Burns, the activist investor can indeed claim to have succeeded in convincing several companies to split their businesses with high growth in the rest of the group.
(With Reuters, AFP )
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