The Wall Street Journal quotes the new CEO of Xerox as saying the company will have to lay off more workers when it splits at the end of the month.
Jeff Jacobson is currently Xerox President. He will become chief executive of Xerox after the contract services division spins off and becomes Conduent Corporation. Xerox will continue as the name for the copier and printer business.
In an interview with the Journal, Jacobson predicts the company’s sales decline will ease over the next three years. But he also says the company needs to make changes to get on a stronger footing, which unfortunately will mean a headcount reduction. Jacobson declined to tell the Journal how many jobs might be cut.
Xerox made its annual presentation to investors today, saying it intends to improve its bottom line by about $1.5 billion a year, mostly through cost reductions. Revenue from the document business has fallen by 3.7 percent this year.
Xerox is also telling investors to watch for changes in the way it does business in the next couple of years.
Jacobson told the company’s annual investor meeting that the traditional printer business is shrinking, so the company is getting set with 29 new products to be released in the coming two years. He says all will address markets that are still growing.
Jacobson also says you’ll see Xerox office machines on sale in big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy, competing with home and small office printers. That’s also a growing market, and presumably some of the new products will be focused there.
