Sack the Xerox CEO 'immediately', yell activist investors Activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deacon are linking arms to force Xerox to “explore strategic alternatives” for the business and squeeze out the “old guard” manning the fort should they resist change. Icahn and Darwin collectively own 40 million shares in photocopier and print giant Xerox - equating to a 15 per cent …
I dunno: According to the NYSE, Xerox has gone from a 52 week low of 26.48 to a 52-week high of 34.13. Now, my math is a bit rusty, but according to my calculations,that's a 56% increase in stock value n the 52 week period. That should be good enough for anybody, except, of course, for Carl Ichanfuckupanycompanyicangetmyhandson. (I wish my portfolio did as well!).
Until Ichan has been making day-to-day strategic decisions for a few years at Xerox, his is only an opinionated observer's view. I can recommend all sorts of solutions and plans for growth for Fortune 500 companies, but until i really know what they are up against, my views, and icahn's, are so much smog.
@ Hollerithevo:
Until Ichan has been making day-to-day strategic decisions for a few years
Icahn *has* been making day to day strategic decisions for quite a number of years. The issue with Idiotcahn is that the only strategy he knows is outsource, sell off, gut and line pocket. This has s&^t to do with creating long term value for a shareholder.
"his is only an opinionated observer's view"
And boy, is he opinionated!
It's quite simple. If he knows how to run a photocopying (or anything else) company better than anyone else why doesn't he just do a start-up, put his own money into it and run it himself. I'm sure we'll all follow the results with interest.
I have been following Xerox for a number of years as a customer.
The entire old guard has gone, the technology comes from companies bought along the road or the Fuji partnership.
Icahn has a personal vendetta against Jacobson and his advice isn’t worth anything.
Xerox should consider merging with another equipment manufacturer to survive, and Jacobson having been close to 6 years in charge, is the one to make it happen.
Maybe Xerox is still a force in some corporate settings, but on reading this story it struck me that it's been years (at least) since I thought of Xerox, much less saw a Xerox branded product.
I just assumed they were yet another company that used to be legendary, and a corporate behemoth, that had been clobbered by their own corporate ego while competitors adapted to and redefined the market.
Right I'm trying to think of one of the major 70s or 80s tech giants that still dominates an industry, and I come up blank.
Ironically, Apple as a phoenix?
But yes, I agree, most fail to self cannibalise and miss the coming disruptions as they tie themselves to the Wall Street quarterly inspection that leaves no room for multi year change.
Xerox missed so much opportunity (I'm a former Xeroid), even in the internet boom days. Paralysed by a fear of moving away from the "click" and KPIs that reinforced a 1980s model, even the 2000s
The Xerox Board of Directors and management are confident with the strategic direction in which the company is heading and we will continue to take action to achieve our common goal of creating value for all Xerox shareholders.
That sounds like it was copied from somewhere.
My experience with Xerox these days is just as a business process outsourcer for governments and big companies. For example, they are the ones who administer the red light camera program where I live. All they're doing in that outfit is collecting a percentage of fines paid and hiring a few "needful-doers" to man the cameras and respond to complaints.
I know they still make copiers and printers, but even those are just physical extensions of the BPO organization these days.
...dumber-than-soup, greedy-assed, coke-snorting, ADHD-addled, know-nothing rat bastard fuckhead who, in a self-medicated haze, thinks he (and it's always a 'he") knows how to run a given company better than the hard-working folks who made the company profitable int he first place.
And then there's Carl Ichan.
Carl! Bubby!! Can you say "Trans World Airlines"? I knew you could....
I upvoted you for restraint. Now tell us how you really feel. Those of us who have been around for awhile will probably agree in force and upvote that one also. Ichan should be taken out back and stood against the wall for all the good he does for anyone other than himself.
If I were to state how I really felt about that scum-sucking doucebag, I'd get hauled away in a frothing rage. Let me put it this way: Fuckers like Carl Ichanhascheezburger (thanks, macjules, I liked that!) make Martin Shkreli look like paragons of human virtue.
Oh, and one other thing. Taking him out back and shooting him is way to kind an outcome for him. He should be take out back, and each one of the folks who lost their job as a result of his insatiable greed and hubris be allowed to knee-cap him.
Xerox has been drinking it for decades since before I joined up in 1990 or so, and got downsized in 2K - awards and commendations notwithstanding.
What bothered me was that Xerox would happily invent a software technology, market it to customers for several years - and then walk away from it leaving customers to replace or rebuild applications from scratch.
The successful copier salespeople rose to executive ranks without ever understanding the importance of software in the high volume printing data center environment.
I was recruited and worked in the DocuShare Business Unit. We innovated and grew the business taking out ECM giants Documentum, OpenText and others left and right. We tried to work with core Xerox Copier BU to create biz solutions around automation. We were treated like nothing and all the talent we had eventually left... A LARGE missed opportunity. I did not want to leave but we really had no choice...
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