Xerox is done playing mister nice guy – the company has named a slate of directors it wants to shoehorn onto HP's board to spearhead its £33bn hostile takeover bid.
The copier giant will nominate 11 directors at HP's upcoming shareholder meeting in an attempt to gain control of the company's 12-person board. The list includes former senior directors at Aetna, United Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Novartis and Verizon.
Nominees
Betsky Atkins – Chief executive of Baja Corporation, a venture capital firm.
George Bickerstaff – Co-founder and MD of M.M. Dillon & Co., a healthcare and tech boutique investment bank.
Carolyn Byrd – Chair and CEO of GlobalTech Financial, a consulting firm.
Jeannie Diefenderfer – A former Verizon executive, who is now a member of the Workforce Development & Support Advisory Panel at the NSA, where she advises on workforce development and diversity and inclusion.
Kim Fennebresque – former chairman, president, and CEO of financial services firm Cowen Group.
Carol Flaton – former MD at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm.
Matthew Hart – President and CEO of Hilton Hotels until their buyout by Blackstone in 2007.
Fred Hochberg – Chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States during the Obama Administration.
Jacob Katz – Former chairman of Grant Thorton, a leading independent audit, tax, and advisory firm.
Nichelle Maynard-Elliott – Recently served as executive director of M&A for industrial gas giant Praxair.
Thomas Sabatino Jr – Former executive vice president and general counsel of Aetna, an American health insurer.Xerox has been chasing its much larger rival since November, offering $33.5bn or $22 per share. HP has so far refused to play ball, thrice rebuffing Xerox on the grounds that its offer "significantly undervalues" the business.
The nominations signal a more aggressive approach from Xerox – the company previously warned things were going to get nasty – pressuring HP to negotiate a deal. A vote on the nominees could act as a proxy referendum on the proposed merger, and installing several directors more favourable to it will help.
"We believe HP shareholders will be better served by a new slate of independent directors who understand the challenges of operating a global enterprise and appreciate the value that can be created by realising the synergies of a combination with Xerox," CEO John Visentin said in a statement.
HP responded by calling the nominations "a self-serving tactic by Xerox to advance its proposal, which significantly undervalues HP and creates meaningful risk to the detriment of HP shareholders".
Additional, earlier, coverage at The Register
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday January 27 2020, @04:38PM (5 children)
Nothing like a good old business fight. Even more so than in professional sports, everybody involved will get or stay rich no matter who wins, and nobody really cares about the fans of either team.
And you can be sure that no matter who wins this, consumers will lose.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @04:46PM (1 child)
#TeamXerox
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Monday January 27 2020, @10:36PM
#TeamXerox
(Thought I'd make a copy, given the context)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @04:06AM
Actually HP has got bad enough that Xerox might actually make things better even if it's merely by accident/side-effect (e.g. sacking the HP people who would screw customers more than Xerox would on average).
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/939ay3/hp-remotely-kills-perfectly-good-ink-cartridge-with-drm [vice.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday January 28 2020, @05:45AM (1 child)
They're going about it the wrong way, they only need to replace one person. Put Fiorina back as CEO, wait a few years, and then they can buy all of HP for $15.95.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @03:26PM
That's $20.00 too much.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday January 27 2020, @04:56PM (2 children)
A slightly smaller panopoly occupying the already incredibly anti-consumer space of printer sales. I am giddy. Excited. Overjoyed.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday January 27 2020, @05:29PM (1 child)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheRaven on Monday January 27 2020, @05:48PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Monday January 27 2020, @05:02PM (4 children)
... and *none* of them have a technical background.
Finance, finance, finance, HR, finance, consulting, ... ,...
Best of luck HP.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @07:55PM (1 child)
And then you get the support relative who calls you to come and look at their "dy" that's playing up. Hours later you figure out that is just "hp" upside down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @06:32PM
I have a jade laptop.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Monday January 27 2020, @08:15PM
They'll need luck. I don't ever buy anything HP again. Met a homeless person on the street, less than 30 miles from the home of HP (that got burned down), and he was a victim of those worthless c-suite hell-bound bastards. He worked for HP for over 20 years and then was told to train his H1-B replacement before being sacked.
Anytime I have an opportunity to purchase products from HP, I can't help but remember that homeless person and then those worthless c-suites still sleeping in warm beds while he is on the street. That's not a memory conducive to me parting with my money anytime soon.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @01:50AM
good catch.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fadrian on Monday January 27 2020, @05:11PM (5 children)
It's just another case of one company's shit management not knowing what to do with its cash buying out another company with shit management. After all is said and done, the deck chairs will be re-arranged; the ships still sink because the Titanic that is HP doesn't need the Xerox anchor to weigh them down even more.
That is all.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday January 27 2020, @05:48PM
I'm kind of surprised Yahoo isn't trying to buy them....or maybe an ice cream maker. Or a supplier of sump pumps?
All would make as good a business plan, all said and done.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 5, Interesting) by TheRaven on Monday January 27 2020, @05:52PM (3 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @08:19PM
There's no need to bind yourself to Xerox for this kind of experience tho. Just buy PaperCut, which was made by printer people "optimized out of" Microsoft. It supports everything you described and much more.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fadrian on Monday January 27 2020, @10:48PM (1 child)
At least on the print shop level, Xerox is the least bad of suppliers that can supply high-speed printing. You wouldn't call them "good", just "least bad". Their pricing is high, but service is pretty good (it would have to be as often as their more complex systems break down). The downside? Unless you're big enough to have a support rep allocated to your site, don't bother calling and their billing is a disaster. My wife has worked with these folks for the past dozen years and has seen things go steadily downhill.
The term anchor is entirely justified when talking about Xerox.
That is all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 28 2020, @10:56AM
I have run xerox industrial laser printers on and off for 25 years. From Docutech to IGEN and everything in between.
Their printers significantly improve over their lifetimes. They start off buggy and prone to breakdowns, but after a few years they are pretty reliable if you treat them well.
People think they break down or need servicing a lot, but they are comparing them to pissy little desktop machines. I have worked on machines where we put seven million prints a month through them. They do a 'PM' (Periodic Maintenance) every so often (3~4 hours downtime every week/month depending on load), and many of the 'breakdowns' are due to clueless managers delaying PM's to try to get more out before they have to stop.
If you are big enough to run a Xerox industrial printer, you are big enough to get a support contract, and nuts if you don't.
Note: I was dealing with Fuji-Xerox not the USA parent Xerox. Not sure if it is different over there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 27 2020, @11:22PM
ah.. now I see where this shit is coming from
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/14/investing/xerox-fujifilm-deal-off/index.html [cnn.com]