... are we sure it was Iching! that suggested that Xerox write the letter in the first place?
Why can't you be a nice little computer maker and just GET IN THE TRUNK, Xerox tells HP in hostile takeover alert
Xerox is escalating its takeover efforts against HP Inc with an explicit threat that it could soon begin a hostile takeover. An open letter to HP's board posted on Thursday demands that the printer and PC arm of the legendary technology biz agree to enter the next phase of merger talks or face a share buyout campaign. In …
COMMENTS
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Friday 22nd November 2019 00:24 GMT tfewster
Re: An Offer You Can't Refuse
Carl Icahn...called the proposed merger a "no-brainer"
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Friday 22nd November 2019 00:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: An Offer You Can't Refuse
Icahn is saying that this valuation of HP is likely as good as it gets.
It values HP at near it's peak price in 2019 and at a ~30% premium compared to when the offer was made.
Looking at how well competitors are doing in the printing market, the declining PC market and the challenges HP have with selling ink and other consumables, even if he is wrong, I suspect it may only be by a few percentage points assuming HP can rediscover their mojo.
Given the HP's track record for senior management, I find it hard to believe that Xerox can do worse. A Xerox/HP combination could potentially provide some competition to Canon before they become unstoppable.
But then I suspect recruiting at a graduation ceremony at a clown college would also improve HP's chances of improving senior management, so my advice isn't such a "no brainer"...its more likely a floater that needs two or three flushes before it goes away.
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Saturday 23rd November 2019 04:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: An Offer You Can't Refuse
The phone market that massively consolidated around the two leading brands, a lot of also rans and cheap Chinese phones?
HP could have spent hundreds of millions more trying to keep up, but I'm not sure it would have resulted in any real difference to their fortunes without some seriously good features that couldn't be copied by Apple/Google in a few months to nullify any real competition.
Unless I missed the sarcasm...
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Monday 25th November 2019 11:39 GMT Stuart Castle
Re: An Offer You Can't Refuse
I doubt HP would have survived in the phone market. They were never a massive presence in the market, and even those that were have largely been replaced by cheap Chinese makes. Even the mighty Nokia is a shadow of it's former self.
HP had good PDAs, but that market is effectively dead, having been killed by the Smartphone. They also, as I understand, had good Mobile phones, but they backed Windows on mobile. Despite Microsoft spending billions, and buying Nokia effectively as a way of marketing Windows, this failed. This is a sad thing, IMO, because based on my admittedly limited experience, Windows Mobile was better than Android.
They could have transitioned to Android, but this would have cost money, and they likely would not have been one of the big Android vendors anyway.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 11:33 GMT localzuk
Re: But HP are shift.... and I may be completly out of the loop here.
Xerox's business is mostly large MFDs and the like. HP's is mostly smaller printers (workgroup and what have you). The 2 do match quite nicely in that regard. HP also have their burgeoning 3D printing division, and their large format division as well.The technology that underplays all of that is a very nice asset.
Throw in the fact that both engage in "business services" and it kinda makes sense.
But the rest? Laptops, Desktops, Tablets & Displays? I could see that being spun off into a separate business relatively soon after merging.
I would've thought HP buying Xerox would've been the more sane way of things going though. HP could buy them, and bolster their various divisions with the assets nicely.
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Sunday 24th November 2019 17:18 GMT aks
Re: But HP are shift.... and I may be completly out of the loop here.
You'd assume that the combined companies would have a superb skill-set but from their deteriorating financials, maybe not. The question for the future is whether they have the IPR's to grow. I suspect that the majority of their patent portfolio is now very long in the tooth.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 14:16 GMT Mike Moyle
Re: But HP are shift.... and I may be completly out of the loop here.
And, of course, it has to be remembered that it's being supported by Carl Icahn whose lifelong strategy involves getting control of ailing companies, loading them up with debt to pay for the buyout, strip-mining every salable asset, and leaving everyone but the preferred-level stockholders both broke AND holding the bag for the debt. So, from a stockholder's POV, the deal makes perfect sense.
From everyone else's, not so much.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 13:13 GMT Zippy´s Sausage Factory
My money's on a hostile takeover by Xerox - always has been. If it were me I'd do that - replace everyone, take it over, rename all the bits I actually wanted as "Xerox this/that/other" then sell the rest to someone else for a chuck of cash to pay off some of the debts of the acquisition.
Replacing the existing board also means that if there is shenanigans in the books that are tied to HP board members you just can just throw the previous board members to the wolves should you need to...
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Friday 22nd November 2019 13:18 GMT adam payne
HP says it will not consider any merger with Xerox until it gets the ability to perform due diligence of the prospective buyer, while Xerox says that it has a problem with HP's demand only going one way.
Wow HP may have actually learnt something from the mess they made during the autonomy buy out. Colour me shocked.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 16:44 GMT Erik4872
End-stage capitalism on display
OK, in one corner you have Xerox who is still making copiers and document management stuff in an era where people don't print much. In the other corner, you have an ink and toner manufacturer that happens to sell printers, a range of garbage consumer PCs and a range of OK middle of the road business PCs. All this in an era where people don't print much AND when PCs are being used mainly for work while consumers are consuming on phones and tablets.
"Let's tie these rocks together and see if they float!"
I understand that both these companies are huge and have massive potential for being bled dry during the dismantling process. But, I think it's awful for the people still working there. A perfect example of this is DXC, which is in the process of being parted out, and my assumption is that the carcass is going to be sold to one of the big Indian outsourcers. HP Xerox is just going to cut and cut until they can no longer convince anyone to buy their products anymore, then suddenly dump 100,000 people out onto the job market.
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Sunday 24th November 2019 09:51 GMT Pascal Monett
I concur. As a freelance consultant, I see many different office types (accounting, finance, insurance, technical, industrial, etc..), but I have never seen even one without paper everywhere - even in IT departments.
The printer business may be declining in the home, but in the business it is flourishing.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 17:04 GMT LeahroyNake
I agree with your post apart from 'in an era where people don't print much'?
For home users fair enough but most homes do not have a photocopier or large format printer.
Xerox seem to be in the right area and from what I know do not sell garbage home ink machines that cost less than a new set of ink. But! They are continually fighting with other copier manufacturers dropping their pants on pricing (both hardware and contracted maintenance) to get contacts while screwing the dealers that offer better service.
HP are not in the serious business of small format office copiers, I never come up against a quote for their machines on anything more than a few machines. It's always Canon or Ricoh Xerox for large deals. Sharp and Kyocera, maybe the trash HP Samsung that are cheap as chips and just as squishy in any sort of decent usage scenario. Their large format, I was praising them last week. Its a shame that their supply chain has gone to pot and customers are looking at 10 day plus delivery for ink unless they want to pay 20% over the odds.
Anyway back to not printing much... The controls that enable reduction in print via maybe Equitrac, Papercut etc.. Yeah we sell these and are still seeing steady revenue from the license renewals that mostly offset the reduction in print no matter what the marketing bollocks says.
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Friday 22nd November 2019 18:17 GMT luis river
Possible Split HP inc
Except by buy innovative tech Printer 3D, printer grand format and consumer printer market share , I dont understandable that buyout. For that I believed Split HP inc in two parts and then Xerox buyout printer HP business. and HP retain Pcs business and tech associated