This Week in Imaging: OfficeJets Moving on Up; HP-Xerox Merger Thoughts

by Kathleen Wirth · Published March 15, 2019 · Updated April 18, 2019

One of the office-imaging industry’s perennial trends was on display this week with HP Inc.’s introduction of new OfficeJet Pros. These are sub-$500 A4 color inkjet All-in-Ones, but as we continue to see, HP and others continue to bring enterprise-level features to small-business machines – in this case, security features, job-shortcut customization, and automated job workflows.

Meanwhile, speaking of HP, last week’s news concerning Xerox’s strategy to create a new holding company that would wholly own Xerox as a subsidiary seems to have many speculating that the move is designed to make it easier to sell Xerox, in its entirety or parts of it. Many continue to speculate that HP is the most likely suitor. Previously, HP is said to have inquired about purchasing Xerox in January 2018, before the now scuttled Xerox-Fujifilm deal was announced. Such a purchase however would not go down well with Fujifilm – which, with a recent court decision, can still legally pursue its $1 billion lawsuit over the controversial deal. Moreover, according to some sources, HP is said have grown less enthusiastic about a Xerox acquisition.

Many have also speculated that the transition to a subsidiary would pave the way to selling off parts of Xerox, which includes PARC, XMPie, Global Imaging Systems (re-branded as Xerox Business Solutions), and a host of other subsidiaries. These include a large network of office-equipment dealerships around the country – by our rough count, about 40 – that are under the Xerox Business Solutions umbrella (a complete list of Xerox subsidiaries is available here at the U.S. Securities and Exchange website). With all of the dealership consolidation occurring, they might be attractive purchases for some players.