ANTITRUST: How Xerox Lost Half its Market Share in 1972 To Canon, Toshiba and Sharp.

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In 1972, the Federal Trade Commission brought an antitrust suit against Xerox, the world’s then-leading producer of copier technology thanks in part to its Silicon Valley-based innovation incubator Xerox PARC. Evidently unimpressed, the head of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition F.M. Scherer said he would be “dissatisfied if Xerox’s market share isn’t significantly diminished in several years.” To that end, the FTC forced Xerox to give up its blueprints and other discoveries, allowing an estimated 1,700 patents to make their way to Xerox competitors. Sure enough, Xerox lost half its market share—mostly to Japanese firms such as Canon, Toshiba and Sharp. Xerox’s only viable path to survival was to strengthen its alliance with Fuji, creating a new giant, Fuji Xerox.