Date: Friday September 5, 2008 03:46:52 pm
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AnonymousInactive
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20080831/BUSINESS/808310325/1001Xerox not worried about Ricoh’s purchaseA
year ago, Xerox Corp. bought office imaging equipment distribution
giant Global Imaging Systems Inc. In that $1.67 billion move, one of
the Rochester area’s major employers greatly beefed up its sales and
distribution network.Last week, one of Xerox’s rivals did nearly the
same thing. Ricoh Co. of Japan is buying Ikon Office Solutions for
$1.62 billion in cash.With the purchase of Pennsylvania-based Ikon,
Ricoh makes major inroads into the U.S. and Canadian office equipment
markets.
But Xerox is dismissing the idea that the acquisition
makes Ricoh a difficult competitive challenge.”We see this move for
what it is: a defensive play by Ricoh to try to keep pace with the
industry’s leader — Xerox,” Xerox Office Group President Russell
Peacock said in an internal message sent to employees last week.Office
imaging equipment means big bucks to Xerox. For the second quarter of
2008, the company had revenues of $2.5 billion in its office segment.
While
Xerox’s Global Imaging carries some non-Xerox equipment, Ikon likely
will become a distributor solely of Ricoh equipment, said Andy
Slawetsky, president of Industry Analysts Inc. in Rochester.In his
memo, Peacock said the Ricoh-Ikon deal causes more problems for other
office equipment companies than it does for Xerox. He said it places
competitors Canon and Konica Minolta “in a difficult position,
especially considering Ikon delivers 35-40 percent of Canon’s total
revenue in the U.S.”
Xerox, which employs 7,600 people in the
Rochester area, is giving some indications it hopes to capitalize on
the moment. Some Ikon customers may be uncertain about issues such as
being able to continue to get service for non-Ricoh machines.”We
believe this change in the industry structure will be positive for
Xerox and intend to aggressively leverage the opportunity presented by
this disruption,” Peacock wrote.”Certainly it’s a good time for Xerox
to turn up the heat on Ikon and go after their customers with a little
more zeal,” Slawetsky said. “It gives them something to talk about,
certainly.”
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