Copier News — February 2017

February 17, 2017

Toshiba financial woes update

– Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan (aka Foxconn), which bought Sharp, has contacted Toshiba about investing in the troubled company, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper

– Company also is considering mass layoffs according to Kyodo News Service

– Toshiba stated that its flash memory chip division will be separated from company on 3/31/17

o Claims it has received bids ranging from $1.8 billion to $3.6 billion for a 19.9% stake in division

– Is considering issuing preferred shares to raise $2.66 billion

– The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that Toshiba will book a loss of 700 billion yen ($6.2 billion), which means that company “appears likely to have temporarily fallen into insolvency because its debts exceeded its assets”

Samsung exec summoned again to court

– South Korean prosecutors investing corruption scandal stated they plan to summon Lee Jae-yong (Samsung vice chairman) again

– Investigating bribery allegations between Samsung and impeached South Korean president, Park Geun-hye

– Samsung is suspected of providing tens of millions of dollars in money to South Korean government officials

Sharp’s copier division revenue sinks

– For last quarter, company reported that MFP/printer division revenue went down 18.6% to 72.3 billion yen

– Operating income down 41.5% to 4.1 billion yen

– Hardware sales down to 24.1 billion yen

Sharp execs leave during restructuring

– Company is being streamlined to cut costs by its new owner, Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan (aka Foxconn)

– Joe Costantino, deputy manager of Autralian division has left

– Also leaving is Sandra Woods, admin GM and Ross McLennan, operations GM

Sharp makes acquisition

– Bejing Headline News reports that company spent 17.2 million Swiss francs to acquire Fritz Schumacher AG

– Is a copier dealer located in Zurich, Switzerland

Ricoh to ship new A3 b/w laser MFPs

– Models to launch are MP 2555SP, 3055SP, 3555SP, 4055SP, 5055SP, 6055SP

– Base MSRPs of $6400, $8350, $9880, $12,250, $14,725 & $18,925

– Top speeds of 25, 30, 35, 40, 50 & 60ppm respectively

– Off white plastic exterior with dark grey accent in middle

– All will have new 10.1”, “Smart Operational Panel” touchscreen color LCD control panel as compared to models they are replacing

o Document feeder optional is single pass duplex doc feeder

 Top scan speed of 110opm or 180ipm

 250 original capacity

Ricoh production color hits milestone

– Ricoh announced it has placed its 2000th Pro C7100 series of production color laser system in Europe

– Installed the latest system at Ligurgraf, a commercial printer in Liguria, Italy

– Reason given for choosing the C7100 series from owner Alessandro Dario:

o “This was a straightforward decision. The combination of high image quality plus the versatility of the fifth station (white or clear toner) brings, means we can enhance our offerings and reputation.”

Ricoh wins production print contract

– Award from Integrated Document Solutions, a department of State of Colorado government in Denver

– Installed InfoPrint 5000 MP production color inkjet system

o Will be used to produce transpromo materials, customized pocket folders

– Also installed a Pro C7100X production color laser system with 5th toner

Ricoh to launch 3D printing training?

– UL , a global safety science organization, and Ricoh announced a collaboration through which the two companies will provide training to UL and Ricoh customers

– will promote the proper usage and advancement of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies

– will be held at Ricoh’s US-based dedicated training locations and then will scale to other geographies in the Americas

– three-tier AM training curriculum, which spans introductory industry topics through more advanced design, technical and hands-on AM learning, focuses on the continued learning and development of AM technical and business professionals

– will utilize train-the-trainer program to on-board Ricoh experts to deliver AM training classes to both UL and Ricoh customers

HP to lay off workers in Ireland

– 500 could lose jobs in cost cutting move

– Plant in Leixlip, Kildare, Ireland makes inkjet print cartridges and R&D

Ricoh survey results

– 95% of mid-sized businesses expect digitization to provide business advantages

– Expect process to remove barriers to growth

– 63% hope to overcome regulatory burdens

– 91% expect to face a harder path to digitization than enterprise size companies

– 94% plan to invest in digitization solutions

o 11-20% of IT budget dedicated to this initiative

Okidata announces its earnings

– back in the second quarter posted an extraordinary loss of 2.5 billion yen after the Japan Fair Trade Commission determined the company violated the country’s Antimonopoly Act

– third-quarter sales down 7.9% to $940.1 million

– operating income down 74.4% $8.9 million

– operating margin down from 3.4% to 0.9%

– posted net profit of $13.4 million

– MFP/printer division sales down 15.5% to $246.6 million

o operating income down 92.9% to $890,000

o operating income margin was down to 0.4%

o the third quarter versus 4.3 percent in the year-ago quarter.

– CEO Kamagami commented, “The OKI Group is reviewing its business and assets to steadily implement future growth strategies as well as formulating next Mid-term Business Plan”

Xerox gives more details on Q4 numbers

– A4 b/w MFPs down 19%

– A4 color MFPs down 8%

– A3 midrange b/w MFPs down 13%

– A3 midrange color MFPs no change

– B/w production print down 18%

– Color production print up3%

Xerox wins production print contract

– Award from The Print Place of Goodwood, Cape Town, South Africa

– Installed a Versant 80 production color laser system

– Reasons given to choose the Versant include:

o 2400x2400dpi

o Ability to run up to 350gsm

o Simple Image Quality Adjustment (SIQA) for adjusting media alignment

o Inline spectrophotometer with ACQS (automated color quality suite)

HP wins production print contract

– Award from CRD of the Church of Scientology International, located in Commerce, CA

– Installed an Indigo W7200 production color system

– Used to produce magazines, brochures, direct mail and educational materials

Fuji Film posts its earnings

– for third quarter total revenue down 5.4% to $5.4 billion

– operating income down 4.8% to $473.5 million

– Operating income margin 8.7%

– net income up 15.9% to $405.5 million

– MFP/printer division (much of product is relabeled by Xerox) total revenue down 8% to $2.4 billion

o operating income down 23.8% to $139.3 million

o operating income margin down to 5.8%

o “looking to reduce expenses and improve costs in order to improve profitability”

2016 Channelwise Awards announced

– Based on survey of VARs (computer products resellers) of favorite brands:

– HP = personal computers and workstations

– Dell = mobile computers

– Samsung = tablets

– HP = printers, MFPs, peripherals and accessories

– Epson = projectors

– Samsung = LCD monitors

– Cisco = switches, routers, wireless networking

– HP & Dell = servers

– Dell = storage hardware

Commercial printing down in December

– From U.S. government data

– Shipments down 5.8% to $6.875 billion

– The year was down 2% to $86.4 billion

Canon makes management change

– Announced that Toshio Homma is no longer CEO of Office Imaging Products division

– Replacement not announced

– Mr. Homma will remain as representative director

Canon offers new media for DreamLabo

– Launched expanded media selection for use with DreamLabo 5000 production photo color inkjet system

– Now offering “Deep Matte” paper with smooth, gloss-less texture

– Single sided printing only

– Aimed at wedding portrait photography market

Canon partners with Square9 Software

– Announced it will bundle Square9 software with some of its desktop scanners

– Will bundle Square9’s GlobalCapture Convey document capture/OCR solution

– Pricing not announced

Canon to launch new b/w production series

– Will launch new varioPRESS 140 series, based on Oce’ designed engine

– Models to include 115, 130 and 140

– Top speeds of 115ppm, 130ppm and 140ppm respectively

– Base MSRPs of $50,500, $60,500 and $76,500 respectively

– Besides higher PPM, will also use less energy than previous models

Hyland Software to expand its campus

– The maker of OnBase ECM solutions is headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland

– Had acquired the Five Seasons Family Sports Club building in 2013 for $11.14 million

– Announced it is adding 70,000 square feet of office space to the building to house 330 new employees

Hyland Software wins ECM contract

– Award from Central Methodist University of Fayette, MO

– deploying OnBase to replace Perceptive Nolij Web solution

– integrates with existing Jenzabar CX, CMU’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system

– converted 500,000 documents

Nuance Software reports earnings

– for last quarter, net new bookings up 23% to $380.3 million

– GAAP revenue of $487.7 million

– Recurring revenue was 72% of total revenue

– GAAP operating margin was down 4.9% to 6.5%

Man faces 15 years for copier lease scheme

– Joseph Holzberg, 50, was arrested by Rockland County, NY police for allegedly charging a local business more than $250,000 in copiers that were never actually delivered

– Apparently hid some of the copiers in two storage facilities

– Prosecutor claims that Mr. Holzberg forged documents and invoices on a lease

– The business kept paying the invoices until it took inventory of its devices and discovered that copiers were missing

Researchers invent new type of printer

– University of California-Riverside researchers, led by Yadong Yin, invented a new printer that allows each sheet of paper to be erased and reused 80 times

– Uses paper that has had a special dye applied, made of a mix of nanoparticles formed from Prussian blue dye and titanium oxide

– The titanium oxide and blue dye are separate in each nanoparticle

– After being exposed to ultraviolet light, the oxide in each particle moves to the dye and it turns white

– For example, exposing the paper to a set pattern of ultraviolet light can form a character of the alphabet, making it appear printed on the page

– The color print can be flipped so it’s white on blue or blue on white.

– A ccurate to a resolution of 5 microns

– Image printed is not permanent, but remains legible for at least 5 days

– After 5 days, the image will start to fade and ultimately disappears

– Can erase image by applying heat (250 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes)

– Is not suitable for any document that needs to form a permanent record

– Cost of device and paper not published

– University now trying to find interested manufacturer to license patent