Xerox loses court battle with Fujifilm again
– Reported in Fairfield County Business Journal in Connecticut
– The New York State Appellate Court has overturned preliminary injunctions requested by investors that had blocked Fujifilm’s takeover of Xerox, clearing the way for Fujifilm to reopen negotiations with Xerox management
– In its ruling, the court said that Jeff Jacobson, the former CEO of Xerox, had neither misled nor misinformed the board.
– “The board, which engaged outside advisers and discussed the proposed transaction on numerous occasions prior to voting on agreeing to present it to the shareholders, did not engage in a mere post hoc review, nor was the transaction unreasonable on its face,” the ruling said.
– “(The) court’s decision will allow us to discuss with Xerox the fulfillment of the original agreement,” Fujifilm said in a statement. “All Xerox shareholders ought to be able to decide for themselves the operational, financial and strategic merits of the transaction to combine Fuji Xerox and Xerox.”
Xerox wins MPS deal with fed gov
– Claims it is first to receive authorization for providing managed print services to Federal Agencies
– received security authorization from FedRAMP for providing cloud-based managed print services (MPS)
– federal government spends approximately $1.4 billion annually on printing costs for its knowledge workers
o About $440 million of those costs are estimated to be unnecessary
Fujifilm wins production print contract
– Award from Edison Press of Sanford, Maine
– install of the Fujifilm J Press 750S production color inkjet system
– “The quality is second to none,” stated Joe Rosenfield, President of Edison Press. “The J Press has the most consistent color of all digital and offset presses, making it the clear choice for us.” Its abilities with consistent solids, crisp blacks and vivid images make it a leader not only among other digital devices, but offset equipment as well. The ink is as hard as offset, greatly decreasing the likelihood of marring during the bindery or mailing process.
– Will be used to produce annual reports, marketing brochures, direct mail, promotional items, custom pieces, and kit packing and fulfillment
Kodak sues print shop customer
– Eastman Kodak Co. is suing Kestler Digital, a commercial printer in Chicago, IL
– claiming the company owes nearly $120,000 due to a breach of the service-agreement contract
– print shop apparently refuses to allow repossession of a Kodak production print system
– Kestler Digital and owner Mario Kestler are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in Illinois Supreme Court
Kodak reports financials for FY18
– As reported by David Bullwinkle, Chief Financial Officer of Kodak
– entered in to an agreement to sell Flexographic Packaging Division and expects to close the sale as early as April 8, 2019
– use the proceeds to repay over $300 million of the term loans
– net loss of $16 million for 2018 compared to net income of $94 million in 2017
– total revenue down 4% to $1.325 billion
– operational EBITDA improved to $21 million, compared to $10 million in the prior year
– ended with $246 million in cash
– Sales at Print Systems division, fell by 5% to $895 million
– Enterprise Inkjet sales slipped by 5.6% to $136 million
– Sales at Software & Solutions were effectively flat at $84 million
Canon ships new A3 MFP models
– Now offering the imageRUNNER ADVANCE III models 4535i, 4551i and 6555i
– All are b/w A3 MFPs, using same engine that was launched in 2016
– 45, 55 and 65ppm top speeds
– (Canon still refuses to publish the processor speed of its print controller)
– All same features of the previous “II” series, with following additions:
o Can integrate with SIEM (security info and event management) solutions
o Standard USB direct print
o Optional NFC and Bluetooth
o Improved OCR using IRIS PDF technology
o Optional uniFLOW online cloud-based solutions
o Verifies the device boot process ensuring firmware not tampered with
Document capture solution market growth
– research published by Market Insights Reports
– In 2018, the global Document Capture Software market size was $3.6 billion
– expected to reach $7.94B by the end of 2025
– CAGR of 10.4% during 2019-2025
– (includes solutions from vendors like Phoenix Dispatcher, Kofax, Nuance AutoStore, eCopy, ABBYY, Adobe, Omtool, Readsoft, etc.)
Mergers and acquisitions update
–
Oval Partners
of San Francisco, owner of Flex Group, announced it has acquired Office Equipment of Texarkana and South Arkansas
o headquartered in Texarkana, Texas, and El Dorado, Arkansas
o will roll under Marimon Business, another acquisition
–
RJ Young
, headquartered in Nashville, TN announced it has acquired Business Electronics (BE), a privately-owned office technology and solutions provider in Birmingham, Alabama.
Papercut changes licensing model
– released a new license model that will change the way dealers order the software
– can now choose between two license types: Commercial and Education/Government
– new model also offers: Unlimited users, Unlimited advanced clients, Unlimited desktop widgets, & Unlimited site servers
– switched over to SKU-based Maintenance & Support
Ricoh wins production print contract
– award from Corporate Communications Group, a commercial printer in
– installed a new Ricoh Pro VC70000 production color inkjet system
– reasons for choosing included:
o continuous feed paper rolls
o able to print on offset-coated and untreated papers
o 1200x1200dpi
o Piezo crystal inkjet printhead technology
o Top speed of 492 feet per minute or 130K pages per hour
– will be used to produce high-end catalogs and magazines
FedEx Office opens more retail stores
– FedEx Office, headquartered in Plano, TX, a provider of printing, packing and shipping services and subsidiary of FedEx Corp., announced it now has 2,000 retail locations
– (fka Kinko’s)
– “Our 2,000 stores represent an unmatched nationwide network for both shipping and printing,” said Brian Philips, CEO and president of FedEx Office. “We’re continually investing in new ways to make e-commerce easy for customers and retailers alike. We also continue to enhance our network’s printing capabilities, which include advanced color management technology that ensures the accuracy and consistency of materials printed at any location nationwide.”
– Has 150 stores within Walmart locations
Kyocera makes changes at Databank div
– DataBank (which Kyocera acquired), a reseller of Hyland Software, today announced that Matt Charlson will assume the position of President of DataBank IMX, LLC
– current President and co-founder, Chuck Bauer, will step down to focus on accelerating the company’s M&A activities
– will report to Atsushi Yuji, GM of Kyocera
Former DANKA sales rep now billionaire
– New book entitled; “Getting There: A Book of Mentors,” detailed the success of Sara Blakely
– First sales job was selling fax machines door-to-door for DANKA in Florida
o “It was the kind of place that would hire anyone with a pulse,” she said. “On my first day, they handed me a phone book and said, ‘Here are your four zip codes. Now get out there and sell.’ There was no list of accounts that were likely to buy from me. I had to 100 percent drum up my own leads.”
o “Most doors were slammed in my face. I saw my business card ripped up at least once a week, and I even had a few police escorts out of buildings,” she recall
– While working for DANKA, invented Spanx leggings for women
– In 2012 was named by Forbes as the youngest self-made female billionaire
– Today, at 48, she’s worth a whopping $1.1 billion today, according to the publication’s estimates.
Mopria offers new MS Office feature
– The Mopria Alliance, an organization dedicated to providing universal standards for mobile print and scan, today announced the latest release of the Mopria Print Service, version 2.8
– enable users to print Microsoft Office-format documents, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, by using the app’s “share to print” feature
– users can “share to print” to send a document directly to a printer, without having to open the document in a proprietary or operating system-specific viewing application
Y-Soft pokes fun at its competitor
– Y Soft announced it’s offering Nuance customers comfort blankets to help them transition through Nuance Communication’s sale of its Document Imaging print-management and document-capture business to Kofax
– offering a free comfort blanket – along with product and support discounts – to qualified Nuance customers who contact a local Y Soft representative to learn about YSoft SafeQ cost recovery solution (aka follow you printing)
– Ondřej Krajíček, Y Soft Chief Technology Strategist and Managing Director, commented: “Businesses that want an integrated print management and document capture solution designed from the ground up to be scalable, secure and flexible can turn to Y Soft. We can offer Nuance customers peace of mind in the form of a secure future with YSoft SafeQ and a comfort blanket in their time of need.”
Hon Hai Precision opens laptop plant
– Foxconn (aka Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan owner of Sharp) announced it will open up a laptop computer plant (sold under name of Sharp Dynabook) in Taoyuan, Taiwan
– Foxconn acquired laptop computer technology when it bought the laptop division from Toshiba.
School dumps iPads – back to textbooks
– For the past 5 years, Reddam House’s primary and junior high school classes have used e-textbooks on iPads.
– consistent feedback from the students has been that they preferred pages to screens
– Teachers also found the iPads were distracting and did not contribute to students’ technology skills, prompting the school to announce that students should no longer use digital textbooks, and must revert to hard-copy versions instead.
– Principal Dave Pitcairn stated; "The ease of navigation through the textbook was easier with the hard copy. I believe they learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research and reading and making notes."
– analysis of all the research into differences in book formats has found that understanding improves when information is read in a paper rather than a digital format.
Papercut wins solution contract
– Award from Yale University of New Haven, CT
– Price of single sided b/w page to students is $0.06 each
– Double sided b/w page is $0.12 each
Xeikon launches pouch printing system
– Xeikon, headquartered in the Netherlands, announced digital printing solution for pouches
– developed for consumer goods markets – food, beverage, chemical and pharmaceutical industries
– It is essentially a laminated bag made from several layers of material that requires a number of different steps in production
– firstly digitally printing the text and graphics on a thermal laminate using color toner technology
o outside layer of the pouch is prepared and ready for the next steps
o variety of different layers is then constructed by lamination with a series of barriers for protection before the pouch is finally put together in the manufacturing process
BPO publishes results of dealer survey
– 41% report a decline in last year of b/w clicks
o 26% report on increase in b/w clicks
– Which vertical do you see an increase in b/w clicks?
o 70% = education
o 76% = legal
o 68% = healthcare
o 62% = manufacturing
o 65% = government
– 73% report an increase in color clicks
– Which vertical do you see an increase in color clicks?
o 86% = legal
o 80% = healthcare
o 73% = manufacturing
o 59% = education
o 59% = government
– What are the most important business concerns in 2019?
o 66% = how to grow business
o 55% = declining revenue and margins
o 39% = staffing and training
o 34% = expanding into managed IT services
o 24% = declining clicks
o 24% = competition from large dealers
o 20% = managing business through change
o 14% = competition from direct branches
o 8% = competition from MPS/IT providers
o 4% = shift from A3 to A4
