*NEWS*LEXMARK @ 15 :A HISTORY OF PRINTING

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Date: Wednesday March 29, 2006 11:58:00 am
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    LEXMARK AT 15: PRINTING A HISTORY
    They’ve come a long way from typewriters
    Jan. 24: Lexmark announces it will eliminate or transfer 1,350 jobs worldwide, including as many as 200 in Lexington, as part of a restructuring to reduce costs.
    1990
    Aug. 1: IBM announces it will sell at least 80 percent of its Information Products operation, including its Lexington plant, to buyout firm Clayton & Dubilier. Marvin Mann, far right, an IBM vice president who oversaw the Lexington plant in the mid-1980s, is selected as CEO.

    1991
    March 27: Clayton & Dubilier completes the $1.5 billion purchase of IBM’s Information Products subsidiary. The company is named Lexmark International. (“Lex” was inspired by “lexicon,” meaning vocabulary or words. “Mark” referred to “marks on paper,” IBM’s internal nickname for its typewriter and printer operations.) Lexmark gains IBM’s Lexington plant, which produced typewriters, printers, keyboards and office supplies, as well as plants in OrlŽans, France, and Boulder, Colo. Lexmark retains the right to use the IBM brand through 1996.

    1994
    Oct. 24: Lexmark unveils the Optra series, left, the first printers marketed solely under the Lexmark brand.
    1993
    Nov. 4: President Bill Clinton, left, speaks about the North American Free Trade Agreement at Lexmark.

    1992
    March 27: On the company’s first anniversary, left, Mann leads a ceremony with 1,500 employees to unveil a street sign on company property.
    1995
    1996
    Feb. 20: Lexmark announces it will move its headquarters from Greenwich, Conn., to Lexington. The move involves fewer than a dozen employees. In the same quarter, Lexmark breaks ground for an ink-cartridge plant in Ciudad Ju‡rez, Mexico. About the same time, Lexmark stops producing keyboards, below. Keyboards, sold primarily to IBM, accounted for $40-$50 million in sales each quarter.
    Sept. 25: Mann announces Lexmark will invest $80 million in an expansion to add more than 1,000 jobs at its plant in Lexington, increasing its local work force to more than 5,500, to boost production of inkjet printer cartridges.
    Oct. 3: Lexmark announces it will open a $42 million plant in Rosyth, Scotland, to produce ink cartridges. (Lexmark announces in January 2006 it will close the plant.)
    Nov. 15: Lexmark goes public, selling 17.1 million shares priced at $20 each. Shares trade under the symbol LXK on the New York Stock Exchange, which is opened with a call to post by Keeneland bugler George “Bucky” Sallee.
    1998
    1997
    May 1: Paul Curlander is promoted to chief executive officer, replacing Mann, who remains chairman.
    May 19: Lexmark announces a partnership with Compaq to manufacture printers for the then-PC giant, which sells them under the Compaq brand. The arrangement ends after Hewlett-Packard acquires Compaq in 2002.
    Feb. 17: Mann announces that future CEO Curlander, left, has been named to the newly created positions of president and chief operating officer. Curlander also joins the board of directors.
    1999
    April 29: Lexmark, which earlier in the month has joined the Fortune 500 at No. 486, announces its stock will split in the next two months. The company also announces that Mann will retire as chairman, although he will remain on the board. Curlander replaces Mann as chairman.
    May 27: Lexmark announces it will build a new R&D facility in Lexington and add 700 jobs, mostly in engineering. The company does not add all 700 by a specified time, preventing it from receiving more than $3 million in state incentives.
    Aug. 31: Lexmark announces it has broken ground on an inkjet products plant in Chihuahua, Mexico. The company also says it is expanding its inkjet plant in Ciudad Ju‡rez.
    Oct. 8: Lexmark and Eastman Kodak announce a long-term development and marketing relationship for digital photography inkjet printers. In September, the companies launch the Kodak Personal Picture Maker by Lexmark, above.

    2002
    Sept. 24: Dell says it will partner with Lexmark, who will make printers sold under Dell’s brand.
    Nov. 7: Lexmark gets out of the typewriter business.
    Dec. 30: Lexmark sues Static Control Components, which makes and sells computer chips that enable remanufactured toner cartridges to work in Lexmark printers.

    2001
    Oct. 22: Lexmark announces it will eliminate 1,600 jobs worldwide, including 625 in the United States, largely in Lexington.
    Oct. 29: Lexmark unveils the C750 color laser printer, above. The model is the first to use Lexmark’s own internally developed color laser printing engine.

    2000
    May 1: Lexmark introduces the Z52 Color Jetprinter, right, the first inkjet to deliver 2,400-by-1,200 dpi (dots per inch) in both black and color on all paper types. The printer retails for less than $200.
    Oct. 23: Lexmark says 600 Lexington employees will be offered buyouts or be laid off as it shifts production of its Optra line of laser printers to plants in Mexico and China.
    Oct. 18: Lexmark announces it will add 100 jobs, mostly in engineering, in Lexington.
    Oct. 26: The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifts an injunction barring Static Control Components from selling computer chips that allow the refilling of toner cartridges for Lexmark printers.
    2003
    April 29: Lexmark unveils the PrinTrio X1150, right, the company’s first all-in-one priced less than $100.
    2004
    2005
    Oct. 4: Lexmark cuts its earnings forecast by more than half. The company’s stock falls more than 28 percent, dropping $17.44 to close at $43.50.

    2006
    BUYS A FEW CONGRESSMEN & SENATORS SO THEY CAN MONOPOLY OUR INDUSTRY….

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