Xerox reports first quarter earnings

– reported results for its first quarter of 2018
– total worldwide net revenue down 0.8% to $2,435 million
– reported a 42.5 percent drop in quarterly profit
o total revenue in North America down 2.4%
o total MPS revenue up 5.1%
o A4 sales down 5.4%
§ A4 color installs up 4%
§ A4 b/w installs up 18%
o A3 sales up 0.6%
§ A3 color installs up 16%
§ A3 b/w installs up 11%
o PPS sales down 5.2%
§ PPS color installs up 6%
§ PPS b/w installs down 9%
– Operating profit up 5%
– Equipment sales margin of 32.3%
– Adjusted operating margin of 10.4%, down 0.6 points
– Earnings Per Share (EPS) down 8 cents to 8 cents

Total hardware sales down 2.7% to $499 million

– Post sale revenue was down 0.3% to $1,936 million or 80% of total revenue.
o Only renewed 85% of existing service contracts
– Total income was a loss of $68 million, down $108 million from the prior year
– Total debt of $5,571 million
– Xerox is not releasing a financial forecast & will also not be hosting a live conference call.

Xerox launches new A3 color laser MFPs

– announced the VersaLink C7000 Series multifunction color printer
– print speeds up to 30 ppm in colour or black and white
– first page output as quick as 5.1 seconds
– resolution of 1200 x 2400 dpi
– 7” color LCD touchscreen LCD control panel
– Built-in print controller features:
o Equipped with Apple AirPrint, Google CloudPrint, Xerox Service Plug-in for Android, NFC Tap to Pair, and Mopria
o Scan to Google Drive, Microsoft, OneDrive, and Dropbox
o optional apps on the Xerox App Gallery

Toshiba wins contract for geothermal plant

– award from VINCI Construction of France
– will develop plants to be built in several African countries

Toshiba starts to pay down massive debt

– Nikkei Asian Review newspaper is reporting that Toshiba is quickly paying down its debt, diminishing the influence of lenders who want a quick sale of its memory unit to a group led by U.S. buyout firm Bain Capital and fueling speculation that the company may consider a different route on the sale.
– repaid more than 40% of the debt owed to banks in a single quarter
– At the end of 2017, Toshiba owed more than 900 billion yen ($8.23 billion) to six principal lenders
– money owed to main lenders Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Mizuho Bank stood at 80 billion yen each in March, plunging by 60% over the three months
– Toshiba’s main lenders decreased their committed line of credit from 680 billion yen to 400 billion yen as of April.
– foreign equity funds have become Toshiba’s new major shareholders
o could complicate future debates among stakeholders over the company’s business decisions.

Kyocera will build new ceramics plant

– Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced that it will construct a new manufacturing plant on the premises of its Kagoshima Sendai manufacturing complex
– to increase production of ceramic microelectronic packages.
– construction of the new plant is scheduled to begin this month, which will be the 22nd facility at Kyocera’s Kagoshima Sendai manufacturing complex
– will open in August 2019
– bring a 25% increase in the company’s total production capacity for ceramic packages used to house SMD*1 (surface-mount device) electronic devices and CMOS*2 (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors.

Kyocera makes huge impairment charge

– made a $459 million impairment charge on long-term polysilicon supply contracts, as well as downsizing its solar operations in the US
– were the primary reason for its Life & Environment Group (solar PV included) reporting a $482 million operating loss in fiscal 2018.
– Division reported a 24.8% revenue decline to $1.12 billion in FY17 due to downsizing of its solar energy business in the United States and lower sales in its key solar energy market of Japan.

Some toner cartridges found unhealthy

– Xerox announced that its Analytical Services Department completed testing which found a high level of carcinogen in some 3rd party replacement toner cartridges
– found high levels of the carcinogenic compound styrene
o Styrene levels were at 650 parts per million (ppm) for a Chinese-manufactured aftermarket toner
o (versus 4 ppm for Xerox Genuine Toner, a 16,510-percent difference)
– According to Xerox, those who use bargain-brand third-party toner cartridges may be introducing  higher amounts of styrene into indoor office air
– California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment cites studies showing that styrene increased the incidence of combined malignant and benign lung tumors. (in contrast, Konica Minolta’s Simitri toner is environmentally-friendly bio-mass based)

Canon wins production print contracts

– award from LawrenceInk, a commercial printer in Atlanta, Georgia
o installed the Océ VarioPrint i300 sheetfed production color inkjet system
o “After an in-depth cost analysis on toner devices compared to the i300, the decision was made. The VarioPrint i300 was our answer and it has since bridged the gap for our future in the industry.”; stated owner, George Lawrence.
§ “The i300 has provided us the ability to run more media types than we had been able to do before and it continues to perform at peak level.”
– Award from United Mail, a marketing services provider, in Cincinnati, Ohio
o Installed a Océ VarioPrint i300 production color inkjet press
o Will be used to produce direct mail, data analytics, and variable print
o Casey Hendrick, President of Operations for United Mail. “Since installation, the Océ VarioPrint i300 inkjet press has enabled us to compete with any type of variable data printing output across numerous verticals and industries. We were in a toner-driven world for a long period of time but soon realized the benefits of transitioning to inkjet”

HPE wins fraud case

– Former Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain Convicted of Accounting Fraud
– found guilty of orchestrating an accounting fraud to arrive at the $10.3 billion price Hewlett-Packard Co. paid for the U.K. software maker more than six years ago
– A jury voted to convict Sushovan Hussain Monday on all 16 counts of wire and securities fraud after three days of deliberations in San Francisco federal court.
– Hewlett-Packard later wrote down its value by $8.8 billion, citing fraud by Autonomy and asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
– HP has trial next year in London in a $5 billion civil suit against Hussain and Autonomy co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Mike Lynch.
– “Hussain engaged in outright fraud and deliberately misled the market about non-existent sales through a series of calculated sham transactions,” Emmanuel Fyle, a spokeswoman for HPE, said in an emailed statement. “The jury has now held him accountable for his role in defrauding HP.”

HP signs up distributor for its MFPs

– Announced that Supplies Network has added several HP product lines bolstering its current offering of HP Original print supplies and HP Original parts.
– Effective May 1, 2018, Supplies Network will begin Authorized (Tier 1) distribution of HP A3 copier products, A4 M series printers and HP Samsung products
– will be available to all HP Authorized resellers and will be stocked in all Supplies Network regional distribution centers
– “We’ve had a h2 relationship with Supplies Network since 1991. We continue to reinforce the strength of this mutually supportive collaboration with the addition of HP A3 and A4 printer products to Supplies Network’s diverse portfolio.” said Grad Rosenbaum, HP vice president and general manager, Americas Solutions Business.

HP to compensate printer owners

– HP faces a compensation bill over its use of a “dynamic security feature” in printer firmware that blocked the use of non-HP ink cartridges.
– company entered a court-enforceable undertaking with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to compensate impacted customers.

– HP sold about 220,000 mostly OfficeJet Pro model printers in Australia, but did not tell buyers that “non-HP ink cartridges may not work in them”.
– has agreed to pay each affected customer $50, meaning its bill is expected to hit at least $11 million.
– The “dynamic security feature” was either included on the device at purchase or hidden in a firmware upgrade performed by users once they had the printer.
– The ACCC said that in September 2016, “some owners of HP OfficeJet inkjet printers who were using non-HP ink cartridges had those ink cartridges rejected, and in many cases, received an error message which indicated that the cartridge was damaged, when this was not the case”.
o “Consumers were not made aware of the restriction on using non-HP ink cartridges when buying the printer or downloading the firmware update, and were denied the choice to accept or reject it,” ACCC deputy chair Dr Michael Schaper said.
– HP has since made available an automatic firmware update for download which removes the “dynamic security feature” from certain inkjet printer models and allows customers to use non-HP cartridges.

Ricoh reports gigantic loss

– Ricoh announced results for its fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2018
– operating profit loss for its fiscal year of 135.5 billion yen ($1.2 billion)
o impairment losses stem from Ricoh’s MFP/printer business in the US and from its mndSHIFT managed It services business in the U.S.
– Total revenue worldwide up 1.7% to 2,063.3 billion yen
o Sales in the Americas decreased by 5.2%
o Office Printing segment total sales decreased by 1.9% to 1,144.0 billion yen
o Office Service segment total sales increased by 5.3% to 447.9 billion yen
o Commercial Printing segment sales decreased by 0.1% to 185.9 billion yen
o Industrial Printing segment sales increased by 61.6% to 19.2 billion yen
– For its fiscal year that will end in March 2019, Ricoh is forecasting that sales will be down slightly (-1.1 percent) and net income of 47 billion yen

Ricoh launches new color PPS units

– Announced that the new Pro C9200 series will replace the Pro C9100 series
– Will also be sold by Heidelberg as the Versafire EP.
– Are high speed color laser production print systems

Top speed of 135ppm

– Handles up to 450gsm media
– Can also handle 1,260mm single-sided banners and to duplexing a 1,030mm long banner.

uses 4800dpi VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser)

– new Auto Color Diagnosis technology features:
o sensors to manage color and feedback adjustments that are needed to the imaging head
o checks the image against the original raster as it is collected on the image transfer belt
o end users perform a daily calibration routine which is used to set a baseline for the machine and color quality is measured against this throughout the day, checking every image that is laid down.
– media profiling is improved to include the effects of print on registration during printing

 

o 10 sheets are printed to calculate deviation on the first side, another ten to check registration on the reverse and a third batch of ten sheets is used to create the precise back to back registration.
o A final sheet is printed to detail the corrections needed to image stretch and skew to give the exact registration.
o This becomes part of the media profile and is logged in the library.
– 17” color LCD touchscreen control panel
– Continuous operation is enhanced with improved purge control
– Operator Replaceable Units
– no pricing published

Ricoh signs up new dealer

– Ricoh announced it has authorized NBM, Inc. of Burlington, Massachusetts
– Dealership markets to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine
– NBM is already a dealer for Sharp, Konica Minolta, HP, KIP, FP Mailing Solutions, and Lexmark
– NBM also has locations in Boston, MA, Plymouth, MA, and Bedford, NH

Brother celebrates anniversary

– April 2018, Brother Industries, Ltd. (President: Toshikazu Koike) marked the 110th anniversary of its founding.
– Company started its history in 1908 as a company providing repair services for sewing machines

Research firm predicts MFP sales growth

– Report published by Market Insight Reports
– Predicts that digital laser copier market worldwide will grow at a CAGR of 10-15% till 2025

Pitney Bowes to sell off division

– Pitney Bowes Inc., headquartered in Stamford, CT, announced that Platinum Equity has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Company’s Document Messaging Technologies production mail business and supporting software for $361 million
– anticipates proceeds from the sale of approximately $270 million, net of estimated closing costs, transaction fees and taxes
– expects to use the majority of the net proceeds from the sale to pay down debt.
– Platinum Equity is a global private equity firm

Ninestar’s Lexmark starts roadshow

– series of six road shows across U.S. to to give dealers first-look at a series of new products and solutions that will be launched on 6/19/18
o includes new color laser MFPs
o new cloud storage connectors and security solutions
Lexmark executives Clark Bugg, director, North American Channel Sales; Sammy Kinlaw, vice president, Worldwide Channel and OEM Sales; Phil Boatman, business alliances; and Greg Chavers, vice president, North American Channel Sales will be in attendance
Locations include:
o Lexington, KY

 

o Las Vegas, NV
o Orlando, FL
o Montreal, Canada
o Chicago, IL
o Boston, Mass

AIIM changes definition of its name

– AIIM president, Peggy Winston, announced that it is changing its name from Association for Information and Image Management to Association for Intelligent Information Management
– Original name of group was the National Microfilm Association, founded in 1943

Sharp launches new A3 color laser MFPs

– Now offering the MX-3070V, MX-3050V, MX-3550V, MX_3570V, MX-4050V, MX-4070V, MX-5050V, MX-5070V, MX-6050V, MX-6070V
– Range in speed from 30ppm to 60ppm
– MSRPs range from $9625 to $22,825
– Compared to units that are replaced, there are very few additions, including:
o New “Image Crop” features enables users to scan multiple photos at once and save images as separate files
o New scan features allows documents to be scanned to copier HDD, and then send URL to receiver, who can click on link to download documents from copier HDD
o S/MIME security for scan to email

Dealer acquisition

– Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME), headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced it has acquired Columbus Office Solutions & Systems (COSS), of Columbus, OH
– DME is a Toshiba, Sharp, Savin and Kyocera dealer
– COSS is a Sharp, Xerox and Kyocera dealer

Dealer wins large MPS contract

– Award from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania
– To dealer, Quality Digital Office Solutions, a dealer for Kyocera and Xerox

2 arrested using color MFP to make fake $

– Raul Anthony Flores and Audrey Nichole Adams were arrested by police in Abilene, TX
– Found color MFP and fake currency in bedroom of their home

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