Wall Street activist Carl Icahn has toned-up his holdings of Xerox Holdings Corp. to 17%, buying an extra 4 million shares at just under $USD$26 per share. Xerox is a great brand and Icahn clearly believes in its future, funding the tranche by selling off his holdings in Caesar's Casinos and Herbalife.
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| Carl Icahn earnestly believes in Xerox - photo courtesy Marketwatch |
Icahn bought more than 4 million shares of Xerox, bringing his total holdings to nearly 27.5 million shares.
Last year, Icahn backed Xerox’s attempted takeover plan for HP Inc., which HP subsequently rebuffed, with Icahn abandoning the raid at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, he also held stakes in HP but liquidated his holdings in mid-2020.
The savvy investor has also sold off his entire stake in hotel and casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp. and decreased holdings of Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. and Tenneco among other moves.
Icahn's belief in the Xerox brand under CEO John Visentin, goes beyond copiers and production printers. It seems he is reading the tea-leaves of continuing declines in office-style printing and is backing a 'new Xerox; focused on software, finance and the IoT'.
Last month, Xerox said it plans to create three new businesses: Software, Financing and Innovation. The company appointed Sam Waicberg to head up the software business, including the recently acquired CareAR and its content-management system DocuShare, as well as its widely-deployed marketing variable data XMPie, plus FreeFlow automation software for the production print business. Nicole Torraco will lead Xerox Financial Services, which will become a payment solutions business. Chief Technology Officer Naresh Shanker will lead the PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre) Innovation business, which includes its 3D liquid metal, cleantech technology and industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT).
As for the relationship with Fujifilm, following the aborted $6 billion merger proposed 2 years ago, it is apparently back on track.
President and Representative Director of Fuji Xerox Co Ltd, (to be re-named Fujifilm Business Innovation from April 1st) Kouichi Tamai said in an interview published in Print Innovation Asia magazine:
"I want to emphasise that we will continue to deliver our robust products developed in-house to customers and partners including Xerox, with whom we enjoy a good business relationship."
So, as 2021 progresses, we will see a rebranded Fuji Xerox, the continuance of Fujifilm supplying its technology to Xerox and the re-modelling of Xerox Inc into a more diversified IT company. Expect more acquisitions by Xerox to fast-track the changes.
