Sergio:
XRX: is this the announcement you were speaking of:
Xerox Expected to Form Printer Alliance With Sharp (Update1)
By Rachel Layne
Xerox Expected to Form Printer Alliance With Sharp (Update1)
(Adds Sharp, Fuji Xerox would not comment, Sharp share price
in paragraph 13. Changes dateline to March 10.)
Stamford, Connecticut, March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Xerox Corp.,
the world's largest copier maker, is expected to form a venture
with Japan's Sharp Corp. to manufacture, distribute and market ink-
jet printers, analysts said.
Xerox said it will announce an alliance on Tuesday for a
``multibillion dollar initiative' in the market for small and
home office products. The company declined to comment further.
A Sharp spokesman refused to comment.
Analysts said the alliance is likely with Sharp, Xerox and
Fuji Xerox, the company's joint venture with Fuji Photo Film Co.
Xerox said the alliance is one of its most important moves since
it unveiled network and ink-jet printers in 1997, which put it in
competition with No. 1 printer-maker Hewlett-Packard Co.
Masaaki Bando, a spokesman for Fuji Xerox, would not comment,
though he said Xerox plans to make an announcement on Tuesday in
the U.S.
Such an alliance would likely provide ``a slew of new ink-jet
products, and perhaps a distribution partner or two to boot,'
said Alex Henderson, an analyst at Prudential Securities. ``Seems
like a good deal to me.'
The companies have been preparing such an alliance for more
than a year, said Henderson, who rates Xerox a ``hold.'
Xerox, based in Stamford, Connecticut, has been expanding its
lines of small and home office printers since 1997. Earlier this
year, it bought the printing division of Tektronix Inc. to vault
it to the No. 2 position in color printers behind Palo Alto,
California-based Hewlett-Packard.
``This is probably the culmination of some technology Xerox
has been developing for a while for high-speed, low cost inkjet,'
said PaineWebber analyst Ben Reitzes, who has an ``attractive'
rating on Xerox.
The next likely alliance to be announced will be with a
personal computer company, Reitzes said.
I like the very last paragraph too. Rumor is that the "likely allinace" will be with DELL. I told the bride not to sell her DELL on Fri!! She did......sell it.......and bought.......AOL
Ken |
