Xerox Corp has slammed a $1 billion lawsuit filed by Fujifilm over their failed merger bid as “desperate” and announced plans to sell Xerox products directly into the growing Asia Pacific market.
In a letter to Fujifilm chairman Shigetaka Komori, new Xerox CEO John Visentin said litigation filed in New York last week by Fujifilm against Xerox was "nothing more than a desperate, misguided negotiating ploy” to save the takeover proposal.
Visentin pointed to a $450 million accounting scandal at Fuji Xerox subsidiaries in New Zealand and Australia as evidence of the Japanese company’s mismanagement.
“No matter what you tell the Japanese media, it is abundantly clear that the bad actor here is Fujifilm, not Xerox. Fujifilm, as 75% owner and controlling partner of Fuji Xerox, has concealed from Xerox the true extent of a massive and ongoing accounting fraud at Fuji Xerox caused by Fujifilm’s own gross mismanagement."
Visentin says Fujifilm's expectation that Xerox will come to Fujifilm with a new proposal for a combination transaction "is simply delusional. It will not happen.”
The Xerox CEO says the iconic US company is now focused on moving forward alone on several fronts in the Asia-Pacific region to protect its supply chain.
“First, we will start, in a material way, to source products from new vendors. Second, we will build partnerships with companies that are aligned with the Xerox mission to provide world-class technology and solutions. Third, we currently believe Xerox will be much better served by not renewing our Technology Agreement with Fuji Xerox when it expires. We will detail for our shareholders the enormous opportunity for Xerox to sell products directly into the growing Asia-Pacific market with sole and exclusive use of the valuable Xerox name, and a more efficient, better managed supply chain than exists with Fuji Xerox today."
Xerox says it is moving to begin sourcing product from suppliers other than Fuji Xerox and dismissed suggestions by Fujifilm executives that Xerox was unlikely to survive on its own in a shrinking global office equipment market.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Visentin said. "In fact, it is actually Fuji Xerox, which is responsible for nearly half of Fujifilm’s total revenue, that could potentially suffer ruinous consequences from the loss of over $1 billion of revenue from Xerox, its single largest customer. And legally, there is nothing Fujifilm can do to stop that from happening. The New York State Supreme Court has already enjoined Fujifilm from taking any action toward consummating the ill-advised takeover, and it follows that no court would allow Fuji Xerox to take adverse, punitive actions toward Xerox’s supply chain as we begin sourcing away from Fuji Xerox, which we are clearly permitted to do.”
In response, Fujifilm issued a statement dismissing Xerox's plan. “It is again no surprise to hear Xerox’s pretense to sell its products directly into the growing Asia-Pacific market. However, realistically speaking, we believe that it would be extremely difficult for Xerox - which does not currently possess any marketing channel in Asia - to build its own channel from scratch.”