March 14, 2016

Sharp deal to sell out to Foxconn on hold

– Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn (aka Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan) has hired JPMorgan as a financial advisor

– Deal was jeopardized at last minute upon discovery of an extra $3.1 billion of contingent financial liabilities at Sharp

– The pressure is on Sharp as it must refinance 510 billion yen ($4.5 billion) in syndicate loans and credit lines by end of March.

– “Sharp can do nothing without getting more money. The company would die if nobody helps them”, stated Mana Nakazora, chief credit analyst at BNP Paribas SA.

 

Toshiba asks for more money

– Reuters News Service reported that the company asked 3 banks for additional loans of 200 billion yen

– Banks approached included Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank

– “The funds are vital for the survival of Toshiba as it streamlines its bloated businesses, whose poor performances have been masked by years of false accounting”

– “Toshiba needs a speedy rescue due to rapid deterioration of its core units”

– The company already had secured a credit line of 400 billion yen in September of 2015

– Company announced it will sell off the entire medical division, with reporters now claiming that Canon and Fuji are the top bidders so far, with possible purchase price of $6 billion

 

International Paper reports earnings

– FY15 net sales of $22.4 billion, down from $23.6 billion

– Operating profits of $2.7 billion, down from $2.8 billion

 

EFI makes another acquisition

– Purchased Rialco of England

– Company makes dye powders and color products

– Has strong connection with the country of China which is the only place where the raw materials can be found

– Will be part of EFI’s inkjet printing division

 

Komori to offer finishing systems

– Company is preparing to launch the new Impremia IS29, a production color inkjet system (which uses a Konica Minolta engine)

– Announced it is partnering with Highcon to offer the Euclid digital cutting and creasing solutions as options for the inkjet system

– Pricing not announced

 

InfoTrends survey results

– Survey asked business decision makers about their marketing and advertising spend

– Percentage of customer communications by category: o 27.7% = personalized marketing (one to one)

o 38.7% = mass marketing (one to many)

o 33.6% = segmented marketing (one to few)

 

– Reasons for maintaining high quality customer data: o 56% = to increase efficiency

o 41% = enhance customer satisfaction

o 39% = enable more informed decisions

o 39% = save on costs

o 34% = protect organization’s reputation and brand

o 33% = accelerate data initiatives

o 32% = capitalize on opportunities with customer profiling

o 30% = comply with government regulations

o 28% = create a single customer view

o 21% = reduce risk/fraud

o 12% = help the environment

 

– Top issues caused by inaccurate data: o 60% = missing/incomplete data

o 54% = outdated info

o 51% = duplicate data

o 37% = inconsistent data

o 30% = typos

 

 

IBM to have massive layoffs

– Part of an “aggressive” shakeup of its business

– Those losing their jobs are being offered a maximum of one month severance pay

– “IBM is having a resource action aka job cuts”

– “Workers are reporting their work is being moved offshore to Hungary and Brazil”

 

Fuji previews new production engine

– At DRUPA show in Germany, will launch a new production color inkjet press aimed at the flexible packaging market

– Will use LED-UV technology

– Uses a proprietary image forming technology, called Eucon

– Enhanced under coating to prevent ink bleed

– nitrogen purging technology to eliminate UV ink odor

– Top speed of 50 meters per minute

– Uses CMYK plus white inks

– UV curing, to lessen heat

 

Xerox previews new production engines

– At DRUPA will launch the new Brenva HD production inkjet press o First product to combine technology from legacy Xerox toner production print products and the inkjet press technology from Impika of France, which Xerox acquired last year

o Named after a mountain in France

o Is a B3 plus format with maximum sheet size of 634mm x 520mm (14.3” x 20.5”)

o 22’6”w x 6’8” H x 4’0” D

o Top speed of 197 A4 size impressions per minute (182ppm letter size)

o Uses inkjet printheads from Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company of Japan) § Uses aqueous (water based) inks with drying system

 

o Maximum duty cycle of 6 million/month § Targeted volume of 1 milion/month

 

o Inline spectrophotometer

o Missing jet correction on the fly (if inkjet heads get clogged)

o Front to back registration scanning

o Vector halftoning

o Engine is size of the Xerox iGen5

o Handles media from 60gsm to 220gsm

o Optional BDFNX signature booklet maker

o Optional 5,500 sheet stacker

o Offwhite exterior with dark blue accents

o Base MSRP of $649,000 with Windows-based FreeFlow controller

o optional EFI Fiery controller

o “focused on business color such as transactional print, books and manuals and direct mail”

o “for high coverage on coated media, iGen is the best option for the foreseeable future”

o “between 10% and 20% coverage is really the sweet spot for this technology”

o Xerox may also launch another version of this product with a larger sheet size

 

– Will launch the Xerox Trivor 2400 production inkjet web press o Named after mountain in Pakistan

o 20” wide media

o Top speed of 200 meters per minute in b/w mode

o Top speed of 100 meters per minute in full color mode at 600x600dpi

o At 1200 x 600dpi, slows down to 60 meters per minute

o Uses EFI Fiery controller

 

 

Xerox signs agreement with TIS

– Announced it has signed national reseller agreement with Top Image Systems (TIS)

– This allows Xerox and its dealers to resell TIS’s document capture software

– Xerox also has agreement with Kofax (but Kofax was acquired by competitor, Lexmark last year)

 

Xerox wins production print contracts

– Award from Pazazz Printing of Montreal, Canada o Installed an iGen 5 production color toner system

o Included the 5th toner station (orange, green or blue toner)

o Chosen due to its ability to handle up to 24 point stock and Pantone matching

 

– Award from Hickling & Squires, a commercial printer in Nottingham, England o Installed a Versant 2100 and Versant 80 production color systems

o Also included a Duplo 350 digital booklet maker and Duplo DC-646 slitter/cutter/creaser

 

 

Xerox publishes survey results

– Survey of IT decision makers in large organizations o 42% = concerned about cost of paper based processes

o 42% = concerned about security issues around paper based processes

 

– Predicts that only 9% of key business operation processes will run on paper in next 2 years o 50%+ admit that their organizations’ processes are not data dependent yet

o 33% are still communicating with end customers via paper

o 41% agree moving to digital workflows will cut costs

o 87% believe they have skill set to move to digital

o 75% have identified areas for automation § 38% = accounting

  • 37% = expense reporting
  • 36% = account payable
  • 35% = customer care

 

 

– Areas they admit that their company has not yet addressed: o 40% = no solutions for mobile workforce

o 47% = no cloud services or need improved cloud services

o 45% = no predictive analysis through big data

 

 

Photizo Group publishes survey results

– Survey of businesses in North America that use managed print services

– Average customer says they realize a 21% decrease in costs each contract renewal

– 38% say implementation of document workflow solutions is very important to selection of MPS partner

– Which best describes your organization’s current state:

– 4% = control of device fleet and cost reduction is priority

– 9% = control of device fleet and workflow improvement is priority

– 47% = deployed MPS, fleet managed in all locations

– 40% = deployed MPS, but fleet is only managed in some locations

– 87% = believe workflow is important

– 87% = have deployed MPS to at least some locations

– 13% = believe they have actual control over entire device fleet

 

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