Monday, January 26, 2009

MFP Weekend Industry Notes


WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
1-25-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.

- A resident of Dickinson, South Dakota, was surprised to find out that the cash deposit they attempted to make at their bank was rejected as counterfeit money. Local police and the Secret Service are looking for an individual who used a color copier to create the $100 bills that were given to the customer.

- A Chattanooga, Tennessee man named Michael Pardue was arrested after the fake $20 bills he made on a color copier were caught when he tried to make a purchase at a convenience store.

Note from Art: When are people going to learn you can't copy money, you'll get caught!!!

- GE Capital announced it will have a sizeable layoff of employees in its division in Macon, Georgia. This division is called IKON Financial, as it was the primary funding source for IKON prior to their acquisition by Ricoh. Unknown what the impact will be on existing IKON customer.
- IKON, now a division of Ricoh, announced it won an FM contract from Disney for 5 of its resorts in the U.S.


Note from Art: I wonder if IKON meetings will now be held at Disney World, and maybe Mickey Mouse and Goofy can help them write a profitable business plan!

- IKON announced it will lease space on Metro Parkway in Fort Myers, Florida for a new branch.

- Intel announced its fourth quarter financials:
- profit plunged 90% to $234 million from $2.27 billion
- loss of $1.1 billion from equity investments and interest
- 23% decline in revenue
- will shut 5 manfacturing plants and layoff 5,000 employees

- Franchise Services, which runs many print shop chains, announced a reorganization:
- Runs Sir Speedy, PiP, Signal Graphics, Copies Now and MultiCopy
- Richard Lowe now President & COO
- Dan Beck is Executive Vice President
- John Bowen is VP
- Dan Conger is VP & CFO
- Kelly Kimberlin is VP of Strategic Development
- David Robidoux is VP of Marketing
- Christian Lau is VP of IT

- More info on the partnership between IBM and Ricoh. Apparently Ricoh copier sales reps are going to attempt to sell IBM Managed Services, which is a hosted service to monitor customer’s networks.

- HP announced it had won a bid to supply MFPs to McQueary Henry Bowles Troy, a large insurance brokerage headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

- Hewlett Packard announced that its top executive, Mark Hurd, received a $34 million in pay for the year 2008. His base salary is $1.45 million.


Note from Art: Good for him, and I hope he spends every dime of it, or maybe he can give some back to HP so they don't have to lay off any workers!

- Oce’ announced that it had received Fogra Validation for prints from the Oce’ CS665 coupled with an EFI Fiery print server, which is a relabeled Konica Minolta PRO C6501. This certification is based on the ISO/CD 1264707 color accuracy standard.
- Xerox announced it won a bid to provide MFPs and document management solution to the 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida.
- Xerox announced it will relabel software from Autonomy Corporation, which makes Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) technology, which will be used in Xerox’s DocuShare content management

- Xerox announced it is working with the Lotus division of IBM to make software to embed in its MFPs.

- Xerox announced its last quarter’s financials:
- will cut 3,000 jobs to cut costs on top of the 1,500 jobs the company already shed in 2008
- jobs cuts are supposed to save $200M per year
- Stock share price dropped 73 cents to $6.86
- Revenue from supplies dropped 8%
- Profits dropped 99.7% to only $1 million as compared to $382 million last year
- Total sales fell 10% to $4.37 billion
- Equipment sales fell 15%
- Still has $1.2 billion in cash on hand


Note from Art: How is that Global aquisition looking now? 1.2 billion in cash and they lay off 3,000 workers???

- Toshiba’s copier division announced it will sponsor the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Road Racing series. It will provide a “mobile business center” that includes an eSTUDIO 4520C color MFP.

- U.S. NRG Energy announced it will pay $8.8 billion for equipment from Toshiba to build two new nuclear power plants in Texas.

- Standard Register announced it won a 5 year contract with MedAssets, a group purchasing organization for the healthcare industry. Standard Register offers forms and facilities management.

- Panasonic named Bob Perry as Executive VP, reporting directly to Shiro Kitajima, the president. Mr. Perry is formerly from Sharp.

- Due to recent weak performance, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Lexmark’s debt rating to “Baa2”, the second lowest possible rating.

- Sony announced it will close a TV manufacturing plant in Japan due to slow sales and layoff 2,000 employees.

- Best Buy announced it has named a new CEO, Brian Dunn. He replaces Brad Anderson, who leaves the company during reduced revenues.

- The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a scam at the Cleveland public school district. Details:
- The district paid $160,200 to buy size high speed duplicators from Superior Offset Supplies (SOS). - Order was for six machines selling for $24,750 apiece.
- Also included $11,700 for consulting fees
- The purchase was authorized by Dan Burns, who at the time was Chief Operating Officer, who resigned from his job eight days ago.
- The machines were bought two at a time to circumvent a rule which required a bid for purchases over $50,000.
- Sheriff’s deputies searched the schools, but did not find the machines, nor any proof that they were ever delivered.
- Also under investigation is the owner of SOS, Mr. John Briggle.

- Microsoft announced it will terminate 5,000 employees to reduce costs.

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