TECH

Xerox and HP exchange accusations as dispute over acquisition intensifies

The printer manufacturer Xerox Holdings made its$ 35 billion bid by HP to the company's shareholders on the day (03/02), with a formal bid and a refusal by HP because the company could not negotiate an agreement. HP adopted the "poison pill" tactic last month to neutralize Xerox's purchase offer. Unless the companies can reach an agreement, Xerox will replace the board of Directors of HP at the company's Annual Shareholders ' Meeting in the coming weeks instead of the public bid, which will determine the outcome of the acquisition battle. However, after almost a year of negotiations, HP and Xerox were unable to avoid a confrontation.
HP accuses Xerox of refusing to provide sufficient information to allow the offer. Xerox stated that HP does not wish to seek a merger and that its offer by HP is the best way to combine the two companies and offer an award to HP's shareholders.
To complicate the negotiations, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, one of Xerox's main shareholders who last year also acquired a stake in HP, has been pushing companies to combine under the leadership of Xerox CEO John Visentin.
Xerox's account of the negotiations published yesterday also differed in some key points from a version that HP informed shareholders last week.
HP said last week that Xerox refused to answer their questions about the evolution of Xerox's business during its negotiations last year. Xerox, on the other hand, said yesterday that few, if any, questions raised by HP were about the evolution of revenue. In another example, HP said that Visentin told former executive president Dion Weisler that the debt with which the acquisition of HP would burden Xerox made it preferable to purchase Xerox. Xerox, however, said Visentin told Weisler that an acquisition of HP would be highly profitable for Xerox's shareholders, despite the fact that a transaction in the opposite direction would be more direct.
Xerox, whose market capitalization of$ 7 billion is a quarter the size of HP, said it expects a combination to produce approximately $ 2 billion in cost synergies, although HP has said that this figure is too high. The two companies focus on complementary segments of the printing market.

Reuters