Xerox Corp, engaged in a tense standoff with Fujifilm Holdings Corp over an aborted merger, missed analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Tuesday, as corporates cut back spending on printers and photocopiers. In the first full quarter under new management backed by activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, the US photocopier raised its 2018 share repurchase target to $700 million from $500 million and reported higher cash flow.
Xerox - faced with declining demand for office printing equipment and rising popularity of smartphones that has reduced the need to print - agreed in January to a $6.1 billion merger with Fuji Xerox, its 56-year-old joint venture with Fujifilm.
But the complex deal ran into strong opposition from Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason and in May the photocopier pioneer scrapped the merger and handed management control to the activist investors. Net income attributable to Xerox fell to $89 million, or 34 cents per share, in the third-quarter ended September 30, from $179 million, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier, hurt by higher taxes.
Total revenue fell 5.8 percent to $2.35 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $2.42 billion.