Xerox buys Tektronix division and gets colour
- — 23 September, 1999 21:49
Xerox and Tektronix yesterday announced an agreement under which Xerox will pay $US950 million in cash for Tektronix's Color Printing and Imaging Division. With the acquisition, Xerox hopes to challenge Hewlett-Packard's dominance in the colour-printing arena.
Xerox will set up a new business unit adding Tektronix's colour-printing technologies to Xerox's existing black-and-white workgroup printer offerings.
Xerox no longer sees colour printing as a niche area and is gearing up for an aggressive roll out of ground-breaking colour-printing products, said Anne Mulcahy, president of Xerox General Markets Operations.
"What interested us from the very beginning is the fact that (Tektronix) has set the pace for innovation in the colour marketplace," Mulcahy said. "Together, the two companies now have won more than 50 products awards and numerous vendor-of-the-year awards. Together, we'll offer seven workgroup colour-printing products under $US5000 -- more than any of our competitors."
The companies expect the acquisition to help Xerox become HP's strongest competitor in office colour printing. Tektronix's Phaser colour laser and solid-ink printers racked up close to $US725 million in sales last year, according to the companies, and Xerox's distribution capacity is expected to rise to more than 16,000 resellers and dealers around the world -- almost double the current number.
