4/28/16
Lexmark Acquired
– Lexmark International, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with a consortium of investors led by Apex Technology Co., Ltd. (Apex) and PAG Asia Capital (PAG).
– Lexmark will be acquired for $40.50 per share in an all-cash transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $3.6 billion, net of cash.
– Legend Capital Management Co., Ltd. (Legend Capital) is also a member of the Consortium.
– For an in depth analysis one can read John McIntyre’s Imaging Channel blog below:
http://theimagingchannel.com/11-blogs/1077-yes-virginia-it-s-true-lexmark-acquired-for-3-6b-by-consortium-of-apex-and-pag-asia-capital http://theimagingchannel.com/11-blogs/1077-yes-virginia-it-s-true-lexmark-acquired-for-3-6b-by-consortium-of-apex-and-pag-asia-capital
Lexmark settles with its workers
– The protests and demonstrations over the treatment of Lexmark factory workers in Juarez, Mexico, have come to an end
– the El Paso Herald-Post reported that Lexmark offered settlement terms to the fired workers to end their strike; an agreement was reached on April 10
– Jerry Grasso, Lexmark spokesperson and VP of corporate communications, confirmed the report, saying, “Lexmark has reached [an] agreement with our former employees.”
– The demonstrations in Juarez began toward the end of 2015 after a request for higher pay escalated into a standoff between former employees and Lexmark
– factory workers asked for a raise of 6 pesos a day, or about 34 cents
– After Lexmark refused, workers went on strike and sought to unionize
– Lexmark fired numerous workers (various sources disagree on the actual number fired but it seems to be anywhere from 70 to 120)
Okidata launches new “Neon” color printer
– Introduced the Pro6410 NeonColor desktop color printer
– Uses LED instead of laser technology
– Offers traditional CMYK as well as white toner
– “liberates” graphic designs from the limits of standard color spectrum
– Users can “create fluorescent effects on light or dark backgrounds”
– Use white toner as a security mark revealed only when checked under UV black light
– Handles up to 250gsm
– Banner printing mode
– Top speed of 34ppm
– 1200x600dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)
– tentative MSRP of $1779
Okidata wins production print contract
– award from the Allegra franchise location in downtown Minneapolis, MN
– installed an Okidata C391 production color toner envelope printer
HP Inc. reenters smartphone market
– The company is betting on its upcoming Windows 10 Mobile phone, the Elite x3.
– After the big $3.3 billion write-off of the Palm/webOS device business, HP used MWC 2016 to announce its upcoming high-end Windows 10 Mobile, the Elite x3.
– The upcoming 5.96-inch HP phone is a handset
– all-in-one hybrid of a phone, tablet, and computer
– supports Microsoft’s Continuum for Phones feature through a desktop/laptop dock accessory
– offering a dedicated notebook product (just the screen/keyboard form factor), the HP Mobile Extender, to wirelessly connect with the Elite x3.
– 4GB of RAM means the Elite x3 can run 16 simultaneous apps
– non-overheating Snapdragon 820 SoC processor
– pricing not announced
HP Inc. wins production print contracts
– award from Digital Lizard, a commercial printer in Las Vegas (NV), Hayden (ID) and Mahwah (NJ) o installed 6 each of the new HP Indigo 7900 production color systems
o CMYK plus 3 other colors
o Ability to provide “near-perfect match of any color in PANTONE spectrum”
o Ability to print on synthetic, canvas, metalized and lenticular media
o Total contract valued at $5.2 million
– Award from Evolution Creative Solutions of Cincinnati, OH o Installed an Indigo 7800 production color system § Included CMYK plus 3 other colors
– Award from Quantum Group, a commercial printer in Morton Grove, IL o Two Indigo 10000 production color systems
o Three Indigo 7800 production color systems
Apple iPad tablet sales update
– just launched the iPad Pro
– 6th anniversary of first iPad debut
– Now sold more than 300 million iPads
– Industry analyst, Gartner, had predicted that annual tablet computer sales would pass 300 million units by 2015
– In February, IDC estimated 2015’s actual tablet sales at 207 million
– Apple recorded sales of 50 million iPads in 2015
– Gartner now predicts no growth in sales until 2018
– In contrast, smart phone sales of 1.4 billion in 2015 o 70% of U,S. market is smart phones with screen size of 5 inches and above
Xerox wins production print contracts
– Award from Silver Banana, a commercial printer in Cape Town, South Africa o Installed a Versant 80 production color system
o Reasons given for choosing the Xerox were 80ppm print speed, 350gsm media handling, 2400x2400dpi, 10 bit rendering
o “top speed with the heaviest paper stocks without any loss in quality”; stated Bryn Whithair, owner
o Will be used to produce envelopes, labels, tabs, business cards, window decals, synthetic papers, greeting cards, textured stocks, polyesters
– Award from Guilderland Printing, a commercial printer in Albany, NY o Installed a Versant 2100 production color system and a D125 production b/w system
– Award from Worldwide Printing Solutions of Tasmania, Australia o Installed XMPie web-to-print solution
IDC reports on data center hardware sales
– Industry analyst, IDC, forecasting a gradual decline in traditional data center hardware sales, as spending shifts towards cloud infrastructures
– Companies positioned to benefit from growing cloud-related IT hardware spend include Arista, Super Micro, Infinera, and Oclaro.
– 46% of all spending on “IT infrastructure” (referred to as servers, storage, and switches) will go towards cloud infrastructures by 2020, predicts IDC.
– A lot of that growth will come at the expense of traditional data center infrastructure gear, whose spending share is expected to drop to 54% from 69.8% in 2015.
– IDC sees spending on traditional gear declining at a 1.3% CAGR from 2015-2020.
– 4% drop is expected in 2016.
– Gartner has forecast total 2016 IT spend (whether on-premise or cloud) will drop 0.5% in 2016
– spending on cloud infrastructure gear is expected to see a 12.5% CAGR
– public and private cloud spending respectively growing at 13.8% and 10.2% compound annual rates
– 30.2% of 2020 server/storage/switch spend is expected to go towards public clouds, and 15.8% towards private clouds.
– A lot of that spending will go to contract manufacturers of white-box hardware, such as Quanta, Wistron, and Compal. o They’ve been doing brisk business selling to the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook
– Impact on traditional hardware vendors: o Hewlett Packard Enterprise received 51% of its FY15 revenue from the Enterprise Group, which provides IT hardware and related services. § HPE’s IT outsourcing business (25% of FY15 revenue, has been seeing declining sales)
- has partnered with Taiwanese contract manufacturers Foxconn and Accton to provide the kind of cheap white-box hardware many cloud service providers are partial to.
o EMC received 66% of its 2015 revenue from its Information Storage business, and another 27% from its VMware division § Dell set to acquire EMC
- VMware is trying to lower its exposure to standalone server virtualization sales by growing sales of cloud/data center management, network virtualization/SDN, and storage virtualization software.
o NetApp’s business consists almost entirely of selling storage systems and related software/services. § The company is hoping its $870M purchase of flash storage array vendor SolidFire will help it better target cloud service providers.
o IBM received 9% of its revenue from its Systems Hardware unit § 37% of revenue from a Global Technology Services unit that partly depends on outsourcing deals featuring IT hardware
o Cisco received 31% of its revenue for the six months ending Jan. 23 from switching § 7% of its revenue from its Data Center unit
- services revenue (23% of total revenue) was tied to services related to its switching and server ops
Arrest for making fake bills using color MFP
– Correen Renae Bowen, 35, made her first appearance in Olmsted County District Court, NY, where she’s been charged with two counts of counterfeiting of currency
– Police found more than $1,500 in counterfeit money and a color MFP in her apartment
Gartner reports on PC sales
– Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units in the first quarter of 2016 o 9.6% decline from the first quarter of 2015
o sixth consecutive quarter of PC shipment declines, and the first time since 2007 that shipment volume fell below 65 million units.
– Lenovo maintained the No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2016 despite a 7.2% decline in shipments
– Dell’s worldwide PC shipments declined 0.4 percent in the first quarter
– HP down 9%
– In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 13.1 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 6.6 percent decline from the first quarter of 2015, the lowest in three years.
Gartner reports on IT spending
– Worldwide information technology spending is expected to decline 0.5% to $3.49 trillion in 2016
– Software spending to grow 4.2%
– Spending on IT services and data center tech up 2.1%
– Spending on devices down 3.7%
– Spending on communication services down 2%
– Data center systems spend up 2.1% to $175 billion
AIIM survey results
– Average cost to process these paper processes: o Invoice in accounts payable department = $31-$40 each
o Invoice in accounts receivable department = $21-$30 each
o Purchase order in procurement department = $31-$40 each
o Contract in vendor management department = $31-$40 each
– In your human resource department, are these processes still in paper? o Employee separation = 48%
o Policy and procedures = 31%
o Employee file management = 62%
o Recruiting and selection = 32%
Dealer offers unique promotion
– On May 13th, 2016, DOCUmation, a copier dealer in Texas, is conducting a “BLOW UP AN MFP!!!” contest
– Will be held at Stunt Ranch in Austin, Texas for customers
– grand prize winner gets to ignite a giant office copier explosion
– after the event, a catered dinner offered to celebrate “the hated copier finally getting what it deserves”
– grand prize winner and their guest will get a one-night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Austin
Epson wins production print contract
– award from Ranger Label of Ridgeland, MS
– installed an Epson SurePress L-4033AW production color inkjet label system
Kodak wins production print contract
– award from Total Printing Systems of Newton, IL
– installed a NexPress SX3300 production color system
– included 5th color toner option and long sheet paper feeder
Canon opens up new factory direct branch
– held the official inauguration of its direct operation Canon Office Imaging Solutions in the country of Qatar
– run by Wim Wynants, general manager
– 50 employees
– “This showroom is designed to provide hands-on demonstrations of our B2B services and solutions to existing and new customers. It is also meant to display our end-to-end business solutions such as professional print, document and imaging management systems to provide a complete portfolio of innovative products and solutions for businesses across a wide variety of sectors,”
Canon USA management changes
– Toyo Kawamura is executive VP and GM of (BISG) Business Imaging Solutions Group (in charge of both direct and dealer channels) o Retains current position of president and CEO of Canon Solutions America (direct branches)
o replacing Junichi Yoshitake, who is now in charge of solutions, services and support
– Mason Olds, senior VP of BISG
– Hiro Imamura, VP and GM of BISG
– Melissa Moritz, Director of Corp Communications
– Yoshinori Shimono, Senior VP of Finance and Accounting, replacing Kunihikio Tedo, who now moves to Canon Europe
– Joe Adachi remains as chairman and CEO of Canon USA
– Kazuhiko Sasahara, VP and GM of Logistics
– Tetsuhiro Minamide, president of Information and Imaging Solutions
Ricoh has accounting problems?
– reports of government scrutiny into alleged financial irregularities in the country of India
– under regulatory supervision and the Securities and Exchange Board of India is examining complaints, including the delay in announcing results of the company
– Earlier this month, its MD and CEO Manoj Kumar resigned from the board after being asked to go on leave amid an ongoing audit in the company by a committee, which includes an independent law firm and accountants.
– On April 1, the company had asked Kumar, Arvind Singhal, CFO, and Anil Saini, Senior Vice-President and COO, to proceed on leave as the audit proceedings went on
– In a separate filing, the company had said an independent agency, which has been appointed to assist the audit committee to better understand certain areas where auditors had emphasised further review, is presently conducting a review and the same is likely to be completed soon.
Ricoh wins production print contract
– Award from Action Mailers of Philadelphia, PA
– Installed a second Ricoh InfoPrint 5000GP production inkjet press
– Will be used to produce direct mail pieces for non-profit vertical
DMS firm raises funding for growth
– M-Files Corporation, a provider of document management solutions
– announced a $36 million round of Series B funding led by Partech Ventures, with participation from Finnish Industry Investment and Draper Esprit
California copier dealer sells out
– Visual Edge Technology, headquartered in North Canton, OH announced it acquired Image Source, headquartered in San Bernardino, CA
– Image Source was founded in 1988 and sells Xerox, Canon, KIP, Mutoh and HP
– The Image Source acquisition will give Visual Edge increased coverage in California thru 12 direct locations and 72 sales professionals
– Brad Craft, Image Source President, stated, “In a rapidly consolidating industry, it is extremely important for us to operate from a h2er competitive position, while remaining an independent business within the Visual Edge Office Solutions family. We will continue to grow together.”
– Visual Edge Chairman and CEO is Austin Vanchieri
– Visual Edge sells products supplied by Konica Minolta, Canon, Xerox, HP, Kyocera, Sharp, Samsung, and Muratec.
Sharp (aka Foxconn) launches toy robot
– Sharp will start shipping its humanoid smartphone, Robohon, on May 26
– The robot runs on Alphabet Inc.’s Android software
– handles basic functions such as calls, emails, photos and videos
– communicates with owners through simple verbal commands and dances
– comes with an embedded projector
– MSRP of $1,810
– 8 inches tall and weighs little less than a pound
Sharp wins interactive display deal
– award from Peters Township School District of McMurray, PA
– through local dealer, The Wilson Group
– installed 46 interactive LCD display (70″ class) in classrooms
– included WiFi, DVD players, soundboards, wireless keyboards and wireless mouse technology
Sharp headquarters to move to cut costs?
– Sharp could relocate its Osaka headquarters to a nearby key production center, a move that would reflect the wishes of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, or Foxconn, which will become the new owner of the loss-making electronics maker.
– Foxconn CEO, Terry Gou is seen behind the idea to move Sharp’s headquarters to the Sakai LCD plant in Japan
– Foxconn is pushing to relocate some of Sharp’s headquarter functions as early as July.
– Top managers and administrative divisions would move to the new head offices. However, sales personnel working in Osaka may stay behind in part to maintain business contacts.
– The current Sharp headquarters was built in 1956 on the same site where founder Tokuji Hayakawa established his base of operations in 1923.
– But as a result of fiscal 2014’s massive red ink, Sharp sold off the head offices last month to Nitori, a retail furniture chain under Nitori Holdings. Sharp rents the building.
Toshiba partnership falls apart
– A three-way merger between Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Vaio Corp., seen as a way for these smaller PC players to take on larger rivals like HP Inc. and Dell, is apparently collapsing.
– The Wall Street Journal reported that the talks between the three companies were breaking down, and that Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) Inc., which owns a controlling stake in Vaio, had already walked away.
– As the Journal points out, though, the combined 2015 market share of all three companies is less than 6.5 percent, which falls just below Apple’s 7.1 percent of worldwide market share.
– JIP CEO Hidemi Moue publicly talked up the three-way deal as late as February. “The PC market is shrinking, which means there are merits in working together to make the most of research, production volumes, and marketing channels,” Moue told Bloomberg
– At the time, Moue talked about the possibility of moving beyond PCs into smartphones, and predicted that a deal would be achieved by the end of March.
Toshiba sheds more workers to cut costs
– Toshiba Corp. said it has received applications from 3,449 workers, or 3 percent of its domestic workforce, for an early retirement program between January and March.
– As part of its restructuring efforts following an accounting scandal, the ailing electronics and machinery maker sought voluntary early retirement for the first time in 14 years.
– Toshiba plans to book 42 billion yen in related costs for the business year that ended on March 31.
– Toshiba plans to slash a total of 34,000 jobs around the globe over the next two years
Uniprint launches new solution
– Launched UniPrint Infinity vPad Pro, vPad Touch and vPad CE
– Are multi-purpose, printer-vendor independent appliances
– Designed to enable on demand printing with security
– vPads replace remote site or branch Windows print servers
– feature 256 bit encryption
– utilize user-authenticated print release
– print stream compression, claiming to reduce print data by up to 95%
– pricing not announced
Scodix wins production solution contract
– award from Dreamworks Graphic Communications, a commercial printer in Glenview, IL
– installed a Scodix Ultra Pro System UV coating solution
– included optional In-line Foil station
– will be used for packaging, brochures, business cards, invitations and book covers
3D Systems sells off division
– the maker of 3D printers announced it has sold its STEAMtrax software division to Polar 3D Inc.
– selling price not announced
– STEAMtrax is an online based curriculum that integrates 3D printing technology, engineering and CAD modeling for schools
– STEAM is acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics
Smithers Pira report on industrial print
– Includes 3D printing, printed electronics, biomedical, architectural, automotive, creamics, toys, textiles, photovoltaics, wallpaper, etc.
– Total market of $67.4 billion in 2015, up from $32.1 billion in 2010
– Will grow to $107.9 billion by 2020
– In 2015, breakdown by type: o 33.4% = electronics
o 23.9% = décor and laminate
o 13.7% = 3D printing
o 11.1% = promotional
o 6.9% = ceramics
o 5.1% = biomedical
o 3.3% = automotive
o 1.2% = glass
o 1.2% = digital textile
– In 2020, predicts the following: o 39.8% = electronics
o 18.8% = décor and laminate
o 17.4% = 3D printing
o 8.5% = promotional
o 4.9% = ceramics
o 4.9% = biomedical
o 2.9% = automotive
o 1.2% = glass
o 1.8% = digital textile
Laserfiche wins ECM contract from bank
– Award from Jordan Kuwait Bank to archives and processes the Bank’s daily transaction documents, automatically controlling and auditing the captured data and integrating it with other existing systems
– also acts as a centralized secure repository of departments’ content and documents, which facilitates sharing of information and allows authorized employees access to the right information at the right time
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