Toshiba financial issues update

– Company announced it has agreed to sell its NAND memory chip manufacturing division to a group led by Bain Capital for $18 billion

o Group also includes Apple, Dell, 

o SK Hynix and Hoya Corp.

o Unknown how long it will take to finalize the transaction

§ “There are some key issues still to be agreed upon in the content approved by Toshiba’s board”; stated spokesperson for Bain.

– Western Digital (which owns part of division) and was attempting to buy the division stated:

o “We are disappointed that Toshiba would take this action despite Western Digital’s tireless efforts to reach a resolution that is in the best interests of all stakeholders”

o Has now initiated arbitration proceedings against Toshiba in the International Court of Arbitration

o “The biggest question is what is going to happen with the legal case with Western Digital,” said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities Inc. “The situation is still unclear for investors.”

o “It’s clear to everyone that this Bain deal will have difficulty succeeding.”; stated Akira Minamikawa, principal analyst at the IHS Market

– The sale is subject to regulatory screenings in major markets, and a lengthy process may prevent the Japanese conglomerate from raising necessary funds in time to avoid delisting from Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE)

o “Toshiba has taken a major step forward,” said Hideki Yasuda, a senior analyst at the Ace Research Institute. 

§ But he also warned of lingering uncertainty, saying that Toshiba’s chances of ending its financial crisis is “still not 100 percent.”

o One major issue raised during the bidding process was whether Toshiba will receive approval from antitrust examiners for the planned deal.

§ Toshiba Memory will go through regulatory scrutiny in major markets but concerns remain that antitrust reviews, especially in China, could become lengthy and take at least six months or more. 

§ Some describe China’s screening as a “black box” given its opaque screening standards.

o A TSE spokeswoman said Toshiba will need to receive the money paid for the chip unit by the end of March, 2018, and even the slightest delay will not be tolerated.

§ “If Toshiba says that it will have the cash in May, it will still be delisted. Our rules make no exception,” the spokeswoman said, adding that changing the rules would not be easy. “We are not in a position where we can simply change our rules for a single company.”

– Reuters News Service is reporting that Toshiba’s bankrupt nuclear division (named Westinghouse), may have a pension plan that is underfunded by $937 million

o This impacts 9,700 employees

– The Japan Times newspaper is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) of Japan is planning on opening an investigation into Toshiba’s fiscal 2016 results

o Apparently claiming they contain significant misstatements

o Without an investigation, the members warn that the credibility of Japan’s securities market will be affected

o The SESC makes the final judgement on whether it is necessary to recommend charges or criminal complaints

Ricoh fraud claim by whistleblower

– Preliminary audit report published by PricewaterCooper, and detailed in article by Bloomberg News

– Based on deposition of a whistleblower, who is former head of finance at Ricoh’s division in country of India

– Claims that alleged accounting fraud at Ricoh’s division in India may have started in FY14 as opposed to Ricoh’s stand that its books were in order during that period

– Allegedly Ricoh India fudged its books and overstated its profits in the division

Xerox dumps more employees

– The Rochester Democrat Register newspaper is reporting that Xerox has eliminated another 100 employees

o Bill McKee of Xerox stated; “make Xerox more efficient and responsive to our markets”

§ “Xerox continues restructuring activities as identified through recent earnings announcements”

§ “Every decision is a difficult one and we understand the impact on individuals”

o Layoffs include employees from IT and finance, in Rochester, NY, Oregon and Texas

– News10NBC in Rochester, NY is reporting that Xerox also has laid off 115 employees at its spare parts warehouse on Phillips Road in Webster, NY

Xerox to add solutions to portfolio

– Announced it will resell solution software from Plus Technology of Ohio

– Plus Technology provides the following solutions:

o OM Plus Delivery Manager, a print spooler management solution, offering:

§ Print job confirmation

§ Re-printing

§ Re-routing

§ Automated failover

§ Load balancing

§ Bundling

o My-Print-Delivery solution for pull printing (aka follow me printing)

§ Claims to work with ERPs and healthcare EMRs

§ Supports card release, Imprivata, and touch screen release

o Tamper Resistant Print for Rx, a plain paper prescription printing solution

o iSat, a secure/plug & play internet print delivery for remote locations

o Stats Manager, for print/copy/scan/fax usage analysis

o Fleet Manager, for consumables management

Xerox stock sold by large investor

– Charles Schwab Investment Management announced it has sold 3,800,759 shares in the company

Fujifilm financial issues update

– Filed civil proceedings in the High Court at Auckland, New Zealand against former senior executives of copier division in the country

– Follows investigations into the finances of the division, which identified $350 million in inappropriate accounting of revenue and profit

– Government officials are also investigating Fujifilm for potentially breaching a ban on seeking new government business in the country

o Newshub reported that branch responded to a public school bid

Copier dealers buy out other dealers

– Carolina Business Equipment (CBE), headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, announced it had acquired Docuquest Inc of Savannah, GA

o CBE (Sharp, Toshiba & Okidata dealer) also has locations in Charleston, Florence & Aiken, SC as well as Augusta, GA

o Docuquest is a dealer for Tohisba, Lexmark, KIP and Duplo

– Doing Better Business (DBB is a Ricoh dealer), headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, announced it has acquired Word Processing Services (WPS) of Hagerstown, Maryland

o DBB also announced it acquired 2,000 customers and 11 employees from local Ricoh branch

o Also opened up new location in College, PA

– Pacific Office Automation, a multistate dealer, headquartered in Oregon, announced it has acquired Trans-West Network Solutions, a provider of VoIP, WiFi and network solutions, headquartered in Phoenix, AZ

Famous dealer principal passes

– Alan Elkin, cofounder of Advance Business Systems in 1964, passed away on 9/9/17

– Dealership is based on Maryland, and Alan became a local celebrity due to his appearing in humorous TV commercials for his dealership

o Always wore a button that said; “I’m No.2”, as he considered customers first

o First TV ad featured Mr. Elkin opening a window in the middle of the night, shouting “They need me!” and then jumping in a copier repair truck and driving off to a customer

o Other ads showed him racing to customers via a dinghy, helicopter and other vehicles

o One ad had him pretending to be a baseball pitcher, when then Baltimore Orioles manager stated; “Great service, lousy curveball”

o Famous tagline was “We live and breathe this stuff”

Fed gov eases burden of EHR rules

– Donald Rucker, the Chief of the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT, announced the feds will no longer require EHR vendors to prove their software is in compliance by sending it to a ONC-Authorized Testing Laboratory

o “What we are trying to do here is make things as smooth as possible in the regulatory process”

o “We are not changing the certification requirements, per se.”

o “We are doing a little bit of streamlining on the process”

o “Our experience is that people will report if there are issues with their product”

– Also announced that ONC will no longer randomly audit for compliance

 

Dealer breaks ground on new HQ

– Brad Knepper, CEO of All Copy Products, announced ground breaking ceremony for new corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado

– Total completion of project planned for Q1 of 2019

– Will be a 5 story, 81,000 square foot building, attached to existing 25,000 square foot structure

– Will feature the following amenities:

o 180 space vehicle parking structure

o indoor fitness center

o locker room

o 2600 square foot 5th story patio facing mountains and downtown Denver

o Golf simulator

o Pizza oven

o Full bar

o 10 large screen TVs

o Shuffleboard table

o Retractable glass walls that open to outdoor deck

– Also includes electrochromic glass windows that are electrically charged to change level of window tinting based on brightness of sun, eliminating need for blinds

EFI responds to NASDAQ demand

– Responded to letter from Nasdaq stating EFI was not in compliance with listing rules

– EFI provided the Q2 results that were requested

– Original issue was that EFI was holding inventory for clients, which had already been paid and incorrectly reported that equipment was installed

Sharp buys another dealer

– Sharp announced it has acquired Arista Business Imaging Solutions, headquartered in Concord, CA

– Also has office in Santa Clara, and services the northern California market

– Former owners were Ken and Lorrie Eysel

– Will report to Anthony Sci, SVP of Sharp Business Systems

Brother, Canon, Epson and HP sued

– The Stop Planned Obsolescence environmental association filed a lawsuit against the 4 printer/MFP makers, claiming that the companies deliberately engineer their devices in order to reduce their useful lifespan so that customers will purchase replacements.

– Lawsuit filed in France’s Court of Republic of Nanterre

– “elements of printers, such as the ink-absorbing pad, are wrongly indicated at the end of life”

– “blocking the prints on the pretext that the cartridges ink would be empty while there is still ink left”

– “the association was alerted by numerous people scandalized by the short lifespan of printers and ink cartridges, we have reason to believe there is truly a problem”

– Under France’s “Energy Transition Act of 2015”, scheduled obsolescence is punishable with a sentence of 2 years in prison, and a fine that can be as high as 5% of the total  revenue of the offending manufacturer.

 

Kyocera has booth at Hyland conference

– Hyland recently held its annual Community Live! Event, for its OnBase ECM solution customers from across the country

– Kyocera, which recently acquired Hyland’s largest dealer, DataBank, had booth at the event in Las Vegas to demonstrated its new MFPs and ability to scan into OnBase.

New version of PDF to compete with TIFF

– The TWAIN Working Group and the PDF Association launched version 1.0 of “PDF/raster”

– Is an effort to finally “end the grip that TIFF has had on the industry”

– “is a strict subset of the PDF file format, designed for storing, transporting and exchanging multi-page raster-image documents, especially scanned documents”

– Supports Group 4 data compression (like TIFF format, aka “Tagged Image File Format”)

– Also supports uncompressed raw data and JPEG data compression (aka Joint Photographic Equipment Group)

o JPEG is now most PDF document images coming off scanners today are created

– Supports color, grayscale and bi-tonal images

o Meta data

o Encryption

o Digital signatures

o (none of which is supported by TIFF)

Xeikon (PPS vendor) has CEO interviewed

– Xeikon is maker of production color systems in Belgium, and division of Flint Ink

– CEO, Benoit Chatelard, was interviewed about company’s growth strategy:

o “By 2022, 50% of our revenue will be from inkjet”

o (most of current revenue is from toner, LED engines)

o Was formerly executive at IBM and Ricoh

o There are no defined plans to expand either organically or through acquisition

o “We are working on that strategy right now”

o “We are a mid-sized supplier so far and even if we double in size we cannot match HP or Ricoh”

o “We have to be more selective about what we do.  We are currently a division two supplier”

o “We have every intention of playing in division one.  There is room for expansion”

o “Xeikon is very successful, but it is under appreciated.  It deserves to be better recognized”

o 5 years ago, the company introduced a concept called “Trillium” which uses liquid toner, but the project has stalled due because of issues with evaporation rates of the oils used to carry the pigment to the paper.

Canon renews sponsorship of festival

– Announced it has renewed its presenting sponsorship of the annual Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Festival

– To be held on 10/7-15/17 in New Mexico

– Will feature over 500 hot air and gas balloons

Content management solution market to grow

– Research published by ResearchNReports

– Healthcare content management solution market (document management, web content management, data records, etc) is estimated to reach $1+ billion by 2022

HPE reported to have huge layoff

– Bloomberg News is reporting that Hewlett Packard Enterprise (no related to HP Inc.) is planning on getting rid of  up to 5,000 employees to cut costs

– Part of new program called “HPE Next” to “simplify how we work”

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