Canon details first half year earnings

– For the half-year, total sales worldwide increased up 0.1% (includes all divisions, i.e. cameras, etc.)
o MFP/printer division sales worldwide were “in line with the first half last year”
• Overall unit sales up slightly (A3 & A4) • b/w units down, color units up

o Sales generated by Imaging System Business Unit, which consists of digital cameras, inkjet printers, etc., declined year-over-year.
– net income increased by 8.5%

– “will focus on ongoing cost reductions”

– Lowered its forecast for both revenue and operating profit

Canon solution now runs on Brother MFPs

– Canon announced that its uniFLOW print management solution (aka follow me) can now work with select Brother MFPs

– On select models, Canon provides an applet that can be downloaded to the LCD touchscreen

Canon exec interviewed
– Profile magazine featured article on Pete Kowalczuk, President of Canon Solutions America

– “I truly enjoyed the opportunity to have a down-to-earth, open conversation about my experiences in the business world”

– Claims that Canon actively solicits customer input on research and development activities, service processes, and methods for providing solutions to support customer’s businesses

– formed Canon’s Enterprise Services and Solutions Production Customer Council o group of Canon commercial print customers

o meet periodically for discussion on the state of the industry, and how the company can help them improve their businesses

– also featured Mr. Kowalczuk’s perspective on security as a hot-button issue in today’s business world o “Security is the be-all and end-all right now,”

o offers uniFLOW Secure Print functionality

Xerox gets sued by Fujifilm

– Fujiflim officially filed a $1 billion breach of contract lawsuit against Xerox for pulling out of the planned acquisition of Xerox by Fujifilm

– Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

– Two firms already have ongoing litigation in the Supreme Court of New York

Xerox names its top dealers in the U.S.
– Top production print dealer = Loffler Companies, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota

– Highest equipment revenue = Edward Business Systems/Virginia Business Systems

– Highest equipment revenue growth = Usherwood Technology of Syracuse, NY

– Newcomer of the year = United Business Technology of Gaithersburg, MD

Fujifilm reports losses in its subsidiary

– Fuji’s New Zealand office equipment business recorded a reduced loss before tax of $12.4 million in its 2018 financial year compared with $14.9 million in 2017

– remains excluded from some government contracts after a $450 million sales and accounting scandal

– Peter Thomas, managing director in New Zealand stated; “We have implemented a significant restructuring of our business, processes and culture”

– “This has led us to re-focus on our core products and services for customers in New Zealand and is building the foundations for a long-term sustainable business.”

– sold its copy paper supplies business in the country to NZ Office Supplies to raise cash

HP CEO discusses A3 and MPS strategy

– HP CEO, Dion Weisler claims that HP’s market share in the A3 MFP market grew 2% in the third quarter, and 9.1% in second-quarter 2018

– “While I’m pleased with that performance and I’m encouraged by our progress that our team is making around our A3 business, we don’t expect that kind of growth each quarter, whereas I’d like to always remind everybody, we’re building a business for the long-term.”

– also noted that HP continues to aim for 12% share in the worldwide A3 copier market by the end of 2020.

– noted that although HP’s proposed acquisition of European mega office-equipment dealer Apogee for $499 million won’t significantly contribute to this goal

Companies leasing more equipment

– U.S. companies’ borrowing to spend on capital investments rose 4% in July from a year earlier

– The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) said the companies signed up for $8.2 billion in new loans, leases and lines of credit last month, up from $7.9 billion a year earlier.

PaperCut provider now offers doc capture

– PSIGEN Software, Inc. of Madison, Alabama, a document capture vendor, announced a new partnership with Access Control Devices, Inc. (ACDI)

– ACDI, headquartered in Benton, Arkansas, is one of the main distributors of PaperCut (HQ in Australia) in the U.S.

– ACDI will serve as the exclusive North American Distributer of PSIGEN products to the copier dealer channel

– Solutions as each company looks to offer best-of-breed software for the entirety of the document lifecycle.

Sharp’s parent donates to university in WI

– Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan, aka Foxconn, owner of Sharp, pledged $100 million matching gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to establish new research enterprise

– funding to help establish a new interdisciplinary research facility for the College of Engineering

– To receive the full $100 million, UW must raise another $100 million in private gifts over the next two years as part of a broader, $3.2 billion fundraising campaign dubbed All Ways Forward.

– Hon Hai stands to receive $4 billion in public subsidies in exchange for building a $10 billion LCD panel factory in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin and creating 13,000 jobs o Has also purchased a seven-story office building in downtown Milwaukee for a regional headquarters and has said it will open “innovation centers” there and in Green Bay and Eau Claire.

Epson to diversify into drones?

– Epson announced the Drone Soar app

– first full-featured AR app for DJI drone pilots using the Epson Moverio AR Smart glasses platform

– delivers never-before-seen AR experiences for DJI drone users

– includes rich AR content, flight telemetry data and video feed monitoring.

– Developed by Silicon Valley-based YML

Dealer acquisitions

– Fisher’s Technology, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, announced it has acquired Davis Business Machines, headquartered in Helena, Montana o Davis also has locations in Great Falls, Bozeman and Butte, Montana and is dealer for Konica Minolta and Ricoh

– WiZix Technology Group of Sacramento, CA announced it has acquired Complete Business Systems of Livermore, CA o WiZix is dealer for Toshiba, Savin and Lanier

o CBS is dealer for Canon & Ricoh

– Kerr Office Group of Elizabethtown, Kentucky announced it has acquired Office Environment Co., headquartered in Louisville, KY o Kerr Office Group also has locations in Campbellsville and Hopkinsville, and is a Canon dealer

Large format printer market growth

– IDC reports that large format printer market saw shipment growth of 3% year over year

– For first half, shipments were up 3.5%

– Total revenue up 5%

– HP las largest marketshare, and had its shipments grow by 4%

Lexmark to use Android in its MFPs

– During the Lexmark Dealer Road Show event in Boston, Lexmark announced that the control panel on the new MFPs being launched this year utilize the Android operating system

– Other vendors to use Android including Ricoh, Samsung and HP

– (the Android operating system has a long history of security vulnerabilities, see https://androidvulnerabilities.org/ for details)

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