Ricoh to Aquire Ikon

In one swift swipe of the Kantana, Ricoh has erased the after effects of the Xerox acquisition of Global last year. Ricoh has acquired the world's largest independent channel for document management and services. Ikon's fiscal year 2007 revenue of $4.2 billion, IKON has approximately 24,000 employees in over 400 locations throughout North America and Western Europe.


"IKON has terrific strength in areas that complement Ricoh's growth strategy," said Shiro Kondo, President and CEO of Ricoh Company, Ltd. "IKON has advanced Professional Services capabilities with a long list of satisfied large customers. IKON is respected as well for its production print sales and service expertise. We are excited to add the very experienced IKON management team and the thousands of skilled and dedicated IKON employees to the Ricoh family."


Where does this leave everyone else. especially Canon. Canon was slightly affected by the Global buyout and also from KonicaMinolta recently purchasing Danka Industries. I'm thinking Canon is going to be hit very hard, could Canon now make a play for HP, really what else is left to maintain market share. Devastating for Canon if they do nothing.l

Recently we (P4P) conducted a poll of our members as to "Who would Acquire Who in 2009", thinking nothing else could happen in 2008. Our readership had these results:

(18%) Ricoh acquires IKON

(18%) Canon acquires IKON

(55%) HP acquires IKON

(0%) HP acquires Danka

(9%) Canon acquires Danka

(0%) Ricoh acquires Danka


Well, another surprise in an industry that continues to evolve.


Here's some posts from today of our P4P members when they heard of the acquisition.

• the world as we have known it is rapidly changing.....any guesses what's next?I have heard that HP is in the process of actively opening direct sales offices around the county.
• Not here but Canon has to be reeling from this! To tell you the truth, I never expected Ricoh to do this.
• I knew IKON was looking at being purchased awhile back by HP so they have been on the market for awhile. Did I read this correctly... "requires the approval of the majority of IKON’s outstanding shares at its shareholder meeting and will result in IKON continuing as the surviving company" Sounds like IKON will be Ricoh's "brand" now. So the name Ricoh will be no longer or what?
• I would imagine it will be like the Lanier acquisition. Keep the name for the time being as it is a "brand" people know, but I would imagine that it will be blended into RBS in time. Everything Japan does is on a 5 year plan, so there is no hurry for them.
• It will be interesting. It might be a good time for some of the independent Ricoh dealers to look to Canon if they have an large Ikon company in their backyard. There is always fallout from these deals, there will probally be some very good Canon sales people looking to jump ship along with technicians.
• I dont think anything will change, I think they will also continue to operate under the IKon name carry the same brands canon km and the other manufactures will continue to sell to them why not and why change perhaps ricoh will have better placement in goverment and the major accounts but that would be it . When best buys bought out future shop they couldnt cahnge there name my thinking is that this will be the same with this deal.
• When Xerox bought Global and when KM bought Danka, Canon immediately dropped them. They won't sell to the competition. I know that on the Global deal that KM extended their agreement for an additional 2 years to allow for the transition....it should be interesting who the real copier %^$#$* are out there...
• Toshiba bought out a dealer here in Vancouver able who carried canon and sharp they continue to lead with canon soI don'tknow about globally but I would think they would rethink there strategy and continue there relationship with Ikon Danka where they really selling anything.

Ricoh has made the move to keep the factories busy fo a long time, of course here in the US there will be another branding issue. Most likely, IKON will be merged into RBS, however I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way. For me, I don't think its going to have a terrific impact, for the Ikon customers, I'm sure there will be growing pains and many hassles keeping up with the changes.

You gotta love this business.

-=Good Selling=-

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