Ricoh financial issues update
– “we revised downwards the forecast of our operating income, profit before income taxes and profit attributable to owners of the parent”; stated spokesperson
– Ricoh’s top executives will take pay cuts of 15% for 3 months
Zenji Miura, former CEO, now working as advisor, will take a 30% pay cut and then resign
– Total sales up 4.7% to 506.3 billion yen ($4.5 billion)
Operating profit down 45.7% to 3,085 billion yen ($27.2 million)
Operating margin of 0.6%
Profit attributable to owners is a loss of 6,269 billion yen ($55.2 million)
Office Printing division (includes PPS, MFP, printer) total sales down 1% to 274.7 billion yen ($2.4 billion)
MFP sales down 9.5% in first half of year
MFP units down 2.8%
§ MFP supply sales down 6.5%
§ Printer sales down 0.3%
§ Operating profit down 27.2% to 19,321 billion yen ($170 million)
§ Operating profit margin down from 9.6% to 7%
Printing Business (production print) up 4.1% to 44.9 billion yen ($395.2 million)
§ Operating profit up 45.4% to $37.7 million
– Expecting to incur annual structural reform expenses of 39.5 billion yen
Expects to report a net loss of 7 billion yen for the fiscal year ($202.4 million)
– Announced it will no longer provide any additional financial support to Ricoh India
Ricoh India reported net loss of Rs 73.75 crore during last quarter
“accounts appeared to have been falsified”
Ricoh Corp. has taken a charge of 30 billion for losses in India
– Reduced R&D investment by 2.7 billion yen to 54.4 billion yen
– Total debt of 912.8 billion yen ($8 billion)
Ricoh exec discusses reorg
– Press briefing by Brian Dollard, Ricoh Director of Strategic Planning, held at Ricoh office in Boulder, Colorado
Has 50 people in Boulder who are dedicated to project management, custom development, integration and support of Ricoh and 3rd party software
– Ricoh dedicates 5.3% of its revenue globally for research & development
– Now employs 21,000 people in the U.S.
950 technicians
– Has doubled the size of its Commercial and Industrial Print Group (CIPG) sales force since 4/1/17
Includes production print and wide format systems
Includes Ricoh, Mimaki and EFI made systems
“Our intent is to increase outreach to the market for CIPG with both internally developed and acquired technologies, and extend our service and sales footprint.”
“This includes a complete workflow and an extensive partner (dealer) program”
§ Ricoh dealers are not yet allowed to sell continuous feed systems
Kyocera reports its earnings for last quarter
– Total net sales up 18% to 393,183 million yen ($3.479 billion)
– Profit from operations up 78% to 38,336 billion yen ($339 million)
– “We aim to further expand sales through business investments, acquiring the power tolls business of Ryobi, as well as the automotive sensor business from TT Electronics. We expect record sales for the full fiscal year.”; stated Kyocera President Hideo Tanimoto.
– Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) was founded in April of 1959 to make fine ceramics for companies making integrated circuits
Kyocera wins MPS contract
– Award from Yale University of New Haven, CT
– Also included PaperCut print management solution
HP Inc. completes purchase of Samsung div
– HP Inc. (no relation to Hewlett Packard Enterprise) announced it has completed its purchase of the printer/MFP division of Samsung for $1.05 billion
– Samsung has alerted its customers that it has transferred warranties and service of product in field to HP
– HP believes that it can attain a 12% marketshare of the A3 MFP market, which it believes is $55 billion per year in hardware sales
– HP is acquiring not only a manufacturing plant, but also 6,000 employees, including 1300 researchers/engineers, as well as 6500 patents related to printers and MFPs
– HP claims that its future laser MFPs will have a 40% lower cost per color impression and up to a 30% reduction in cost to service the MFPs
– “We will be able to be more aggressive in terms of pricing and programs.”; stated HP president, Enrique Lores.
– (did not specify when it will no longer be using Canon to make LaserJet products)
HP Inc. wins space station deal
– Announced it won contract to make and supply MFPs for the International Space Station
– One unit will print 1000 pages per month on U.S. side of station, and one on the Russian side of station
– The HP “ENVY Zero-Gravity” color inkjet printer/MFP
– Replaced units made by Epson
EFI reports its earnings for Q3
– Total revenue up 1% to $248.4 million
– Net income down 89% to $1.9 million
– Cash flow from operations down 86% to $3.4 million
– “We are clearly disappointed in the 3rd quarter results, which fell below our expectations largely due to delayed deals in our direct business”; stated CEO, Guy Gecht
“To accelerate growth, we are reallocating budget and talent toward our largest opportunities, in textile and packaging, along with making organizational changes and adding senior positions to improve focus and execution”
“We expect to spin-out the operational part of our jet label printer line”
Sharp reports earnings for first half of FY17
– Sharp, a division of Hon Hai Precision (aka Foxconn) reported total sales up 21.3% to 1.1 billion yen
– Net income of 52.43 billion yen
– Smart Business Solutions division (which includes signage, MFPs, printers) sales up 1.9% to 162.7 million yen
Profit down 20.8%
Okidata reports earnings for Q2 of FY17
– Net sales down 2.4% to 103.6 billion yen ($913.3 million)
– Operating loss of $1.8 million yen
– Operating margin os 0.2%
– Net profit of $1.8 million
– Printer/MFP net sales up 0.4% to $237.1 million
Operating income of $9.7 million
Operating margin of 4.1%
Xerox shipping new A3 color laser MFPs
– Launched the AltaLink C8000 series, consisting of C8030, C8035, C8045, C8055 and C8070 models, all made by Fujifilm
– Top color speeds of 30, 35, 45, 50 and 70ppm respectively
– Max duty cycles range from 90K/month to 300K/month
– 4 tandem OPC drum design
– White plastic exterior with dark blue accents
– 10.1” color touch screen LCD display
– Up to 1200x2400dpi resolution
– First color copy out time range from 8.1 seconds to 5.2 seconds
– Document feeder holds up to 130 originals
Scans both sides of original at same time
Top speed of 139ipm (64.5opm)
– Comes standard with 100 sheet stack bypass tray, and two 520 sheet paper drawers
Options can add up to 4,000 more sheets to paper supply
Optional envelope tray holds up to 60 envelopes and replaces top paper drawer
– Finishing options include internal 50 sheet staple, or external finishing with stapling, hole-punch, and booklet making
– Optional fax board
– Built-in print controller
250GB hard drive with encryption and image overwrite features
1.91GHz Intel Atom Quad Core processor
8GB RAM
PCL, PS, PDF drivers
§ Optional XPS
Scan to USB, email, network, FTP, SMB
10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports
§ Optional wireless, NFC tap to print
Can upgrade to EFI Fiery print server
Xerox management change
– Announced that Ralph Slider was promoted to Senior VP of Field Operations for its Global Imaging subsidiary
– Taking Mr. Slider’s old position as President of Michigan Office Solutions (MOS) is Paul Hartley, who formerly was VP of Acquisition Operations
– MOS was formed after Xerox acquired WS Reed Company and Commercial Equipment Company of Michigan.
– MOS of Xerox now has offices in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Novi, Lansing, Saginaw, Alpena, Traverse City and Kalamazoo, Michigan
Canon announces new dealer for Oce’ WF
– Announced it has authorized Loffler Companies, which cover parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, as an authorized dealer for its Oce’ wide format product line
– Includes Oce’ ColorWave and Plotwave color and b/w printers and scanners
RadioShack bankruptcy plan approved
– The U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the reorganization plan of General Wireless Operations (GWOI), dba RadioShack
– GWOI was formed to purchase and operate assets of RadioShack
– Will consist of ecommerce business, dealer network operations and between zero and 28 retail stores, and warehouse operations
Man receives 3 year sentence for fake $
– U.S. District Court Judge Scott Sakvdahl sentenced Bill Frank Blanchard of Escondido, CA to 3 years in prison for making fake $20 bills using a color MFP
– He was caught after he attempted to use the fake currency at a Goodwill store in Laramie, Wyoming
– U.S. Secret Service officers found more of the fake bills and a color MFP in a local motel room he was renting in Laramie.
More arrested for using MFP to make fake $
– Tennessee state police arrested Cedric Davis and Raymond Feathison after they were caught trying to use counterfeit $100 bills at a local Kohl’s department store.
Also arrested were Pamela Twilley and Kadeshia Williams, after they attempted to use fake $100 bill at a local Walgreens.
After searching home, found that they were using a color MFP to change $1 bills to $100 bills.
– Wytheville, Virginia judge sentence Robert Louis Fowler to 15 months in prison after he plead guilty to using a color MFP to make fake U.S. currency.
Managed IT services opportunity to grow
– Research published by SolarWinds Software
– 60% of SMB businesses report that are currently managing all or part of their security internally, but 82% of those are likely to outsource in next 12 months
42% cite cost as main driver of decision to outsource
40% cite performance as reason
– 49% of all responding intend to outsource
Clover Technologies Group exec changes
– The maker of non-OEM toner and print cartridges announced that George Milton as new CEO
– Jim Cerkleski, who was CEO, is now chairman of the board
Visual Edge Technology makes acquisition
– Announced it has acquired AXSA Inc., an HP dealer headquartered in Orlando, Florida.
– Also announced it has acquired MCM Business Systems, a Konica Minolta dealer headquartered in Nutter Fort, West Virginia
Context Research reports MFP sales
– Sales of printers in Western Europe declined in all categories in the 3rd quarter
9% decline in unit placements for inkjet based MFPs
2% increase in unit sales of color laser MFPs
15% decrease in print only laser devices
6% increase in A4 color laser MFPs
Fujitsu sells off PC business
– Fujitsu, headquartered in Japan (and no relation to Fujifilm), announced it sold a controlling interest in its PC, laptop and tablet PC business to Lenovo of China
– Purchase price of 28 billion yen
Epson to enter 3D printing market
– Interview with Epson president, Minoru Usui
– “One of our goals for digital printing technology is the ability to print any materials. We are working on 3D printing that can work on a variety of printing material with high accuracy and productivity”
– Also plans on introducing new smart glasses with augmented reality display
Apple sued by its supplier, Qualcomm
– Claims that Apple illegally shared trade secrets with Intel
– Qualcomm is maker of modem chips for iPhones and iPads
– Reports have recently surfaced that Apple plans on replacing Qualcomm as a supplier
Vox News reports on fax in healthcare
– Article entitled “The Fax of Life”
– “The pages get jammed up so you end up with half-pages that come out at the other end.”; stated Amanda Rohn or Arlington Women’s Center in Washington D.C.
“or you get blank pages that don’t actually have the information you need”
“Medical records generally come by fax. Sometimes they are mailed. They almost never come by any other route.”
“We have a medical records department who goes through at the incoming faxes, sorts them for which doctor they go to, and then I have a folder where they put my results in.”
“If we were all on the same system (EHR), I would be able to see everybody’s results, but since we are not, there has to be some way they get to me.”
– Fax accounts for 75% of all medical communications
– Muratec MFX-3535 or MFX-3595 are effective way to integrate internet faxing into our fax communication routine.
