Kerfuffle escalation: Fujifilm, Xerox take steps to separate further, brace for competition
The divide between Fujifilm Holdings and Xerox Corp. over their failed merger is growing larger and more contentious, as both companies issued statements ramping up the rhetoric.
On June 25th, Xerox vice chairman and CEO John Visentin responded to Fujifilm’s filing of a $1 billion lawsuit with an open letter to Fujifilm Chairman and CEO Shigetaka Komori, blaming Fujifilm’s accounting practices for scuttling the deal:
“Fujifilm should realize that the internal accounting issues at Fuji Xerox were a result of their mismanagement, which made it impossible to close the announced transaction”
According to Reuters, Fujifilm Holdings responded two days later with a promise to compete against Xerox in Asia-Pacific and challenge it in America and Europe if it failed to renew its technology agreement in 2021.
In a letter to Xerox’s Visentin, Komori said, “While Xerox presently has no marketing facilities here in Asia- Pacific, we have global infrastructure that we can utilize for marketing worldwide.”
“It would be enormously costly and difficult for Xerox to gain business in Asia Pacific.”
I expect a key leverage point will be which group controls underlying patents and I.P. Fuji seems to have the edge in distribution, manufaturing and financial staying power.