The once mighty Xerox corporation, inventor of the photocopier, the graphical user interface, ethernet and the workstation is no more. Today it has been announced that Xerox is to be acquired by Fujifilm, with whom it had the joint venture FujiXerox, for $6.1 bilion.
In recent years, much of Xerox's previous, and quite recent, acquisitions have been sold off including Tektronix in Willsonville, Oregon (acquired for its solid ink technology) and Affiliated Computer Services.
Back in 2011, Xerox entered into a partnership with Indian outsourcing firm HCL, transferring thousands of engineering staff, including most in the UK and mainland Europe.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Bobs on Thursday February 01 2018, @10:56AM (2 children)
One of the things that happens when you start to manage by ‘the numbers’ like Internal Rate of Return’
A percentage / ratio of $ of profit vs Expenses.
Selling off all the expensive bits like factories and employees makes the numbers/ percentages look so much better.
For next quarter.
But where does the business / product / growth come from?
Well, that isn’t in the model.
But the percentages look awesome, and the exec’s and board and consultants get paid for hitting their percentage targets.
Management By Parasite.
They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Thursday February 01 2018, @11:47AM (1 child)
Exactly. I have first hand experience of this at Xerox. I was one of the Engineers transferred to HCL. They did it with everything. They even outsourced the people who wrote the manuals and did the translations. Every year the Occupational Health budget would be cut back, and the catering budget. The canteen meals shrank over time.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Funny) by Aiwendil on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:43PM
That is probably the single most literal way of downsizing the workforce I've ever read about