Xerox
Encyclopedia
Xerox Corporation (icon) is an American multinational
document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers
, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut
(moved from Stamford, Connecticut
in October 2007), though its largest population of employees is based in and around Rochester, New York
, the area in which the company was founded. On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services
for $6.4 billion. The deal closed on February 8, 2010. Xerox holds a Royal Warrant from HM Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.
Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester as The Haloid Photographic Company, which originally manufactured photographic paper and equipment. The company subsequently changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958 and then simply Xerox in 1961. The company came to prominence in 1959 with the introduction of the Xerox 914
, the first plain paper
photocopier
using the process of Electro-photography, (later changed to xerography
) developed by Chester Carlson
. The 914 was so popular that by the end of 1961, Xerox had almost $60 million in revenue. By 1965, revenues leaped to over $500 million. Before releasing the 914, Xerox had tested the market by introducing a developed version of the prototype Hand equipment, known as the Flat-plate 1385. This was followed by the first automatic xerographic printer, the Copyflo, in 1955. The Copyflo was a large microfilm printer, producing positive prints, on roll paper, from any type of microfilm negative. Following the Copyflo, the process was scaled down to produce the 1824 microfilm printer. At about half the size and weight this, still sizable, machine printed onto hand fed, cut sheet paper which was pulled through the process by one of two gripper bars. This gripper feed system, when scaled down, was to become the basis for the 813 desktop copier.
In 1963, Xerox introduced the Xerox 813, the first desktop plain-paper copier, bringing Carlson's vision of a copier that could fit on anyone's office desk into a reality. Ten years later in 1973, a basic, analogue, color copier, based on the 914, followed. The 914 itself was gradually speeded up to become the 420 and 720. The 813 was similarly developed into the 330 and 660 products and, eventually, also the 740 desktop microfiche printer.
Chester Carlson's original hand equipment, which saw the market as the 1385 Flatplate, was not actually a viable copier because of its speed of operation. In consequence it was sold as a platemaker to the offset lithography market. It was little more than a high quality, commercially available plate camera, mounted as a horizontal rostrum camera
, complete with photo-flood lighting and timer. The glass film/plate, however, had been replaced with an aluminum plate, coated in selenium. Clever electrics turned this into a quick developing and reusable substitute for film. A skilled user could produce fast, paper and metal printing plates of a higher quality than almost any other method. Having started as a supplier to the offset litho. duplicating industry, Xerox now set its sights on capturing some of offset's market share.
Xerox's first foray into duplicating, as distinct from copying, was with the Xerox 2400. This number denoted the number of prints produced in an hour. Although still some way short of offset speeds, this machine introduced the industry's first Automatic Document Feeder, Slitter/Perforator and Collator (sorter). This product was soon sped up, fifty percent, to become the Xerox 3600 Duplicator.
As an aside, whilst all the above was going on, in a small lab a team was borrowing copiers, off the line, and modifying them. Called the Long Distance Xerography project (LDX for short) and beginning with 914s, the aim was to be able to connect two copiers together, via the public telephone network, such that a document scanned on one machine would be copied out on the other. Many years later this work came to fruition in the Xerox Telecopiers, seminal to today's fax machines. The fax operation in today's multifunction copiers is true to Carlson's original vision for these devices.
The company expanded substantially throughout the 1960s, making millionaires of some long-suffering investors who had nursed the company through the slow research and development phase of the product. In 1960, the Wilson Center for Research and Technology was opened in Webster, New York
, a research facility for xerography. Then in 1961, the company changed its name to Xerox Corporation. Xerox common stock (XRX) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
in 1961 and on the Chicago Stock Exchange
in 1990.
In 1969, Xerox acquired Scientific Data Systems
[SDS], and produced the Sigma
line of 32-bit mainframe computer
s in the 1960s and 1970s.
The laser printer was invented in 1969 by Xerox researcher Gary Starkweather
by modifying a Xerox copier. This development resulted in the first commercially available laser printer, the Xerox 9700, being launched in 1977. Laser printing eventually became a multi billion dollar business for Xerox. Archie McCardell
was named president of the company in 1971. During his tenure, Xerox introduced the Xerox 6500, its first color copier. During McCardell's reign at Xerox, the company announced record revenue
s, earnings
and profits
in 1973, 1974, and 1975. John Carrol became a backer, later spreading the company throughout North America.
Following these years of record profits, in 1975 Xerox resolved an anti-trust suit with the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), which at the time was under the direction of Frederic M. Scherer
. The Xerox consent decree
resulted in the forced licensing of the company’s entire patent
portfolio, mainly to Japanese competitors. Within four years of the consent decree, Xerox's share of the U.S. copier market dropped from nearly 100% to less than 14%.
In 1970, under company president Charles Peter McColough
, Xerox opened the Xerox PARC
(Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) research facility. The facility developed many modern computing technologies such as the mouse
and the graphical user interface
(GUI). From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the Xerox Alto
in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a modern workstation
or personal computer
. This machine can be considered the first true Personal Computer, given its versatile combination of a cathode-ray-type screen, mouse-type pointing device, and a QWERTY-type alphanumeric keyboard. But the Alto was never commercially sold, as Xerox itself could not see the sales potential of it. It was, however, installed in Xerox's own offices, worldwide and those of the US Government and military, who could see the potential. Within these sites the individual workstations were connected together by Xerox's own unique LAN, The Ethernet. Data was sent around this system of heavy, yellow, low loss coaxial cable using the packet data system. Soon Xerox's engineers worked out how to connect the individual sites together, using a system they called Inter Network Routing. This was quickly abbreviated to the first three syllables. Initially there were two separate, private, worldwide networks – that of the US government and Xerox's own.
In 1979, Xerox threw open its doors to anyone in the industry and press, who might be interested in seeing their developments. Several Apple Computer employees, including Steve Jobs
, visited Xerox PARC that day. Jobs and the others saw the commercial potential of the WIMP
(Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointing device) system and redirected development of the Apple Lisa
to incorporate these technologies. Jobs is quoted as saying, "They just had no idea what they had." In 1980, Jobs invited several key PARC researchers to join his company so that they could fully develop and implement their ideas.
In 1981 Xerox released a system similar to the Alto, the Xerox 8010 Star
. It was the first commercial system to incorporate technologies that have subsequently become commonplace in personal computers, such as a bitmapped display, window-based GUI, mouse, Ethernet
networking, file server
s, print server
s and e-mail
. The Xerox 6085 Star, despite its technological breakthroughs, did not sell well due to its high price, costing $16,000 per unit. A typical Xerox Star-based office, complete with network and printers, would have cost $100,000.
In the mid 1980s, Apple considered buying Xerox; however, a deal was never reached. Apple instead bought rights to the Alto GUI and adapted it into to a more affordable personal computer, aimed towards the business and education markets. The Apple Macintosh was released in 1984, and was the first personal computer to popularize the GUI and mouse amongst the public.
The company was revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through improvement in quality design and realignment of its product line. Development of digital photocopiers in the 1990s and a revamp of the entire product range—essentially high-end laser printers with attached scanners, known as Multi Function Machines, or just MFMs, these were able to be attached to computer networks—again gave Xerox a technical lead over its competitors. Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete document service to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and user support. To reinforce this image, the company introduced a corporate signature, "The Document Company" above its main logo and introduced a red digital X. The digital X symbolized the transition of documents between the paper and digital worlds.
In 2000, Xerox acquired Tektronix
color printing and imaging division in Wilsonville, Oregon, for US$925 million. This led to the current Xerox Phaser
line of products as well as Xerox solid ink
printing technology.
In September 2004, Xerox celebrated the 45th anniversary of the Xerox 914. More than 200,000 units were made around the world between 1959 and 1976, the year production of the 914 was stopped. Today, the 914 is part of American history as an artifact in the Smithsonian Institution
.
Xerox's turnaround was largely led by Anne M. Mulcahy
, who was appointed president in May 2000, CEO in August 2001 and chairman in January 2002. Mulcahy launched an aggressive turnaround plan that returned Xerox to full-year profitability by the end of 2002, along with decreasing debt, increasing cash, and continuing to invest in research and development.
In November 2006 Xerox completed the Acquisition of XMPie.
In October 2008, Xerox Canada Ltd. was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star
newspaper.
On May 21, 2009, it was announced that Ursula Burns
would succeed Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox. On July 1, 2009, Burns became the first African American
woman to head a company the size of Xerox.
On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services
for $6.4 Billion. The acquisition was completed in February 2010. Xerox said it paid 4.935 Xerox shares and $18.60 cash for each share of ACS, totaling $6.4 billion, or $63.11 a share for the company.
In May 2011, Xerox acquired NewField IT for an undisclosed sum. NewField IT developed the Asset DB toolset which is widely used across the MPS
Market along with MPS market leading consulting and software services delivering a large impact for this relatively small acquisition.
printers, multifunction printer
s, large-volume digital printers as well as workflow software under the brand strategy of FreeFlow. The impact of Xerox FreeFlow products on the graphic arts market and the print industry in general has grown exponentially since May 2006, largely as a result of the Xerox presence at IPEX 2006. Xerox also sells scanner
s and digital presses. On 29 May 2008, Xerox launched the Xerox iGen4 Press.
Xerox sells both color and black and white printers under the Xerox Phaser
brand, with the color consumer model starting at US$299; the most expensive color model costs US$6,799.
Xerox also produces fax machines, professional printers, black and white copiers, and several other products.
In addition, Xerox produces many printing and office supplies such as paper
, in many forms; and markets software such as Xerox DocuShare
, Xerox MarketPort and FlowPort, offers consulting services, ECM
Digital Repository Services and printing outsourcing
.
, it maintains a joint venture, Fuji Xerox
, with Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co.
to develop, produce and sell in the Asia
-Pacific region. Fuji Photo Film Co. is currently the majority stakeholder, with 75% of the shareholding.
Xerox India
, formerly Modi Xerox, is Xerox's Indian subsidiary derived from a joint venture formed between Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Modi and Rank Xerox in 1983. Xerox obtained a majority stake in 1999 and aims to buy out the remaining shareholders.
NewField IT is a wholy owned subsidiary of Xerox that implements and supports third party software for MPS providers.
Xerox now sponsors the Factory Ducati Team in the World Superbike Championship, under the name of the "Xerox Ducati".
European operations, Rank Xerox
, later extended to Asia and Africa, has been fully owned by Xerox Corporation since 1997. The Rank Xerox name was discontinued following the buyout, and the Rank Xerox Research Centre was renamed to the Xerox Research Centre Europe.
In response to the SEC's complaint, Xerox Corporation neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. It agreed to pay a $10 million penalty and to restate its financial results for the years 1997 through 2000. On June 5, 2003, six Xerox senior executives accused of securities fraud settled their issues with the SEC and neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. They agreed to pay $22 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest.
On January 29, 2003, the SEC filed a complaint against Xerox's auditors, KPMG
, alleging four partners in the "Big Five" accounting firm permitted Xerox to "cook the books" to fill a $3 billion "gap" in revenue and $1.4 billion "gap" in pre-tax earnings. In April 2005 KPMG settled with the SEC by paying a US$22.48 million fine. As part of the settlement KPMG neither admits nor denies wrongdoingf.
During settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Xerox began to revamp itself once more. As a symbol of this transformation, the relative size of the word "Xerox" was increased in proportion to "The Document Company" on the corporate signature and the latter was dropped altogether in September-2004, along with the digital X. However, the digital X and "The Document Company" were still used by Fuji Xerox
until April-2008.
as this places the trademark in danger of being declared a generic word
by the courts. The company is engaged in an ongoing advertising and media campaign to convince the public that Xerox should not be used as a verb.
To this end, the company has written no publications that have used Xerox as a verb, and has also purchased print advertisements declaring that "you cannot 'xerox' a document, but you can copy it on a Xerox Brand copying machine". Xerox Corporation continues to protect its trademark in most if not all trademark categories. Despite their efforts, many dictionaries continue to include the use of "xerox" as a verb, including the Oxford English Dictionary
.
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers
Computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...
, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
(moved from Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
in October 2007), though its largest population of employees is based in and around Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, the area in which the company was founded. On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. provides information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS is based in Dallas, Texas and the current CEO is Lynn Blodgett. ACS is ranked at number 341 on the 2010...
for $6.4 billion. The deal closed on February 8, 2010. Xerox holds a Royal Warrant from HM Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.
History
Xerox 914
The Xerox 914 was the first successful commercial plain paper copier which in 1959 revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process, the 914 was fast and economical...
, the first plain paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
photocopier
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
using the process of Electro-photography, (later changed to xerography
Xerography
Xerography is a dry photocopying technique invented by Chester Carlson in 1938, for which he was awarded on October 6, 1942. Carlson originally called his invention electrophotography...
) developed by Chester Carlson
Chester Carlson
Chester Floyd Carlson was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington....
. The 914 was so popular that by the end of 1961, Xerox had almost $60 million in revenue. By 1965, revenues leaped to over $500 million. Before releasing the 914, Xerox had tested the market by introducing a developed version of the prototype Hand equipment, known as the Flat-plate 1385. This was followed by the first automatic xerographic printer, the Copyflo, in 1955. The Copyflo was a large microfilm printer, producing positive prints, on roll paper, from any type of microfilm negative. Following the Copyflo, the process was scaled down to produce the 1824 microfilm printer. At about half the size and weight this, still sizable, machine printed onto hand fed, cut sheet paper which was pulled through the process by one of two gripper bars. This gripper feed system, when scaled down, was to become the basis for the 813 desktop copier.
In 1963, Xerox introduced the Xerox 813, the first desktop plain-paper copier, bringing Carlson's vision of a copier that could fit on anyone's office desk into a reality. Ten years later in 1973, a basic, analogue, color copier, based on the 914, followed. The 914 itself was gradually speeded up to become the 420 and 720. The 813 was similarly developed into the 330 and 660 products and, eventually, also the 740 desktop microfiche printer.
Chester Carlson's original hand equipment, which saw the market as the 1385 Flatplate, was not actually a viable copier because of its speed of operation. In consequence it was sold as a platemaker to the offset lithography market. It was little more than a high quality, commercially available plate camera, mounted as a horizontal rostrum camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
, complete with photo-flood lighting and timer. The glass film/plate, however, had been replaced with an aluminum plate, coated in selenium. Clever electrics turned this into a quick developing and reusable substitute for film. A skilled user could produce fast, paper and metal printing plates of a higher quality than almost any other method. Having started as a supplier to the offset litho. duplicating industry, Xerox now set its sights on capturing some of offset's market share.
Xerox's first foray into duplicating, as distinct from copying, was with the Xerox 2400. This number denoted the number of prints produced in an hour. Although still some way short of offset speeds, this machine introduced the industry's first Automatic Document Feeder, Slitter/Perforator and Collator (sorter). This product was soon sped up, fifty percent, to become the Xerox 3600 Duplicator.
As an aside, whilst all the above was going on, in a small lab a team was borrowing copiers, off the line, and modifying them. Called the Long Distance Xerography project (LDX for short) and beginning with 914s, the aim was to be able to connect two copiers together, via the public telephone network, such that a document scanned on one machine would be copied out on the other. Many years later this work came to fruition in the Xerox Telecopiers, seminal to today's fax machines. The fax operation in today's multifunction copiers is true to Carlson's original vision for these devices.
The company expanded substantially throughout the 1960s, making millionaires of some long-suffering investors who had nursed the company through the slow research and development phase of the product. In 1960, the Wilson Center for Research and Technology was opened in Webster, New York
Webster (town), New York
Webster is a town in the northeast corner of Monroe County, New York, United States. The town is named after orator and statesman Daniel Webster. The population was 42,641 at the 2010 census....
, a research facility for xerography. Then in 1961, the company changed its name to Xerox Corporation. Xerox common stock (XRX) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
in 1961 and on the Chicago Stock Exchange
Chicago Stock Exchange
The Chicago Stock Exchange is a stock exchange in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The exchange is a national securities exchange and self-regulated organization, which operates under the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . The Chicago Stock Exchange is the third most active stock...
in 1990.
In 1969, Xerox acquired Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
[SDS], and produced the Sigma
SDS Sigma-5
The SDS Sigma series was a series of computers that was introduced by Scientific Data Systems in 1966.The first machines in the series were the 16-bit Sigma 2 and the 32-bit Sigma 7; the Sigma 7 was the first 32-bit computer released by SDS...
line of 32-bit mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
s in the 1960s and 1970s.
The laser printer was invented in 1969 by Xerox researcher Gary Starkweather
Gary Starkweather
Gary K. Starkweather is an American engineer and inventor most notable for the invention of the laser printer and color management.In 1969, Starkweather invented the laser printer at Xerox's Webster research center...
by modifying a Xerox copier. This development resulted in the first commercially available laser printer, the Xerox 9700, being launched in 1977. Laser printing eventually became a multi billion dollar business for Xerox. Archie McCardell
Archie McCardell
Archie R. McCardell was an American business leader. He was best known for his tenure as chief executive officer, president, and chairman of the board at the International Harvester farm and heavy equipment manufacturing concern from 1977 to 1982...
was named president of the company in 1971. During his tenure, Xerox introduced the Xerox 6500, its first color copier. During McCardell's reign at Xerox, the company announced record revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
s, earnings
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
and profits
Profit (accounting)
In accounting, profit can be considered to be the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.-Definition:There are...
in 1973, 1974, and 1975. John Carrol became a backer, later spreading the company throughout North America.
Following these years of record profits, in 1975 Xerox resolved an anti-trust suit with the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
(FTC), which at the time was under the direction of Frederic M. Scherer
Frederic M. Scherer
Frederic Michael Scherer is an American economist. His research specialties include industrial economics and the economics of technological change, on which he has many much-cited works. Since 2006 he has been Emeritus Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management in the Aetna Chair, in the...
. The Xerox consent decree
Consent decree
A consent decree is a final, binding judicial decree or judgment memorializing a voluntary agreement between parties to a suit in return for withdrawal of a criminal charge or an end to a civil litigation...
resulted in the forced licensing of the company’s entire patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
portfolio, mainly to Japanese competitors. Within four years of the consent decree, Xerox's share of the U.S. copier market dropped from nearly 100% to less than 14%.
In 1970, under company president Charles Peter McColough
Charles Peter McColough
Charles Peter Philip Paul McColough was the joint creater, founder, and owner of the Xerox Corporation , and was a former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Xerox. He retired in the late 1980s, after serving over 14 years as CEO...
, Xerox opened the Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
(Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) research facility. The facility developed many modern computing technologies such as the mouse
Mouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
and the graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
(GUI). From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the Xerox Alto
Xerox Alto
The Xerox Alto was one of the first computers designed for individual use , making it arguably what is now called a personal computer. It was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973...
in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a modern workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
or personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. This machine can be considered the first true Personal Computer, given its versatile combination of a cathode-ray-type screen, mouse-type pointing device, and a QWERTY-type alphanumeric keyboard. But the Alto was never commercially sold, as Xerox itself could not see the sales potential of it. It was, however, installed in Xerox's own offices, worldwide and those of the US Government and military, who could see the potential. Within these sites the individual workstations were connected together by Xerox's own unique LAN, The Ethernet. Data was sent around this system of heavy, yellow, low loss coaxial cable using the packet data system. Soon Xerox's engineers worked out how to connect the individual sites together, using a system they called Inter Network Routing. This was quickly abbreviated to the first three syllables. Initially there were two separate, private, worldwide networks – that of the US government and Xerox's own.
In 1979, Xerox threw open its doors to anyone in the industry and press, who might be interested in seeing their developments. Several Apple Computer employees, including Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, visited Xerox PARC that day. Jobs and the others saw the commercial potential of the WIMP
WIMP (computing)
In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for "windows, icons, menus and pointers", denoting a style of interaction using these elements. It was coined by Merzouga Wilberts in 1980...
(Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointing device) system and redirected development of the Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa
The Apple Lisa—also known as the Lisa—is a :personal computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. during the early 1980s....
to incorporate these technologies. Jobs is quoted as saying, "They just had no idea what they had." In 1980, Jobs invited several key PARC researchers to join his company so that they could fully develop and implement their ideas.
Xerox Star
The Star workstation, officially known as the Xerox 8010 Information System, was introduced by Xerox Corporation in 1981. It was the first commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have become commonplace in personal computers, including a bitmapped display, a window-based...
. It was the first commercial system to incorporate technologies that have subsequently become commonplace in personal computers, such as a bitmapped display, window-based GUI, mouse, Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
networking, file server
File server
In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
s, print server
Print server
A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
s and e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. The Xerox 6085 Star, despite its technological breakthroughs, did not sell well due to its high price, costing $16,000 per unit. A typical Xerox Star-based office, complete with network and printers, would have cost $100,000.
In the mid 1980s, Apple considered buying Xerox; however, a deal was never reached. Apple instead bought rights to the Alto GUI and adapted it into to a more affordable personal computer, aimed towards the business and education markets. The Apple Macintosh was released in 1984, and was the first personal computer to popularize the GUI and mouse amongst the public.
The company was revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through improvement in quality design and realignment of its product line. Development of digital photocopiers in the 1990s and a revamp of the entire product range—essentially high-end laser printers with attached scanners, known as Multi Function Machines, or just MFMs, these were able to be attached to computer networks—again gave Xerox a technical lead over its competitors. Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete document service to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and user support. To reinforce this image, the company introduced a corporate signature, "The Document Company" above its main logo and introduced a red digital X. The digital X symbolized the transition of documents between the paper and digital worlds.
In 2000, Xerox acquired Tektronix
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc. is an American company best known for its test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. In November 2007, Tektronix became a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation....
color printing and imaging division in Wilsonville, Oregon, for US$925 million. This led to the current Xerox Phaser
Xerox Phaser
Xerox Phaser is the brand name for a line of color and monochrome printers produced and sold by Xerox. Some Phaser printers use Xerox Solid Ink technology...
line of products as well as Xerox solid ink
Solid ink
Solid ink is a technology used in computer printers and multifunction devices originally created by Tektronix in 1986. After Xerox acquired the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in 2000, the solid ink technology became part of the Xerox line of office printing and imaging products....
printing technology.
In September 2004, Xerox celebrated the 45th anniversary of the Xerox 914. More than 200,000 units were made around the world between 1959 and 1976, the year production of the 914 was stopped. Today, the 914 is part of American history as an artifact in the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
Xerox's turnaround was largely led by Anne M. Mulcahy
Anne M. Mulcahy
Anne M. Mulcahy is former chairwoman and CEO of Xerox Corporation. She was named CEO of Xerox on August 1, 2001, and chairwoman on January 1, 2002. In addition to serving on the Xerox board, she has been a member of the boards of directors of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd...
, who was appointed president in May 2000, CEO in August 2001 and chairman in January 2002. Mulcahy launched an aggressive turnaround plan that returned Xerox to full-year profitability by the end of 2002, along with decreasing debt, increasing cash, and continuing to invest in research and development.
In November 2006 Xerox completed the Acquisition of XMPie.
In October 2008, Xerox Canada Ltd. was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Greater Toronto's Top Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places to work in the Greater Toronto Area...
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
newspaper.
On May 21, 2009, it was announced that Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns
Ursula M. Burns serves as chairwoman and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. She is also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company...
would succeed Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox. On July 1, 2009, Burns became the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
woman to head a company the size of Xerox.
On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. provides information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS is based in Dallas, Texas and the current CEO is Lynn Blodgett. ACS is ranked at number 341 on the 2010...
for $6.4 Billion. The acquisition was completed in February 2010. Xerox said it paid 4.935 Xerox shares and $18.60 cash for each share of ACS, totaling $6.4 billion, or $63.11 a share for the company.
In May 2011, Xerox acquired NewField IT for an undisclosed sum. NewField IT developed the Asset DB toolset which is widely used across the MPS
Managed Print Services
Managed Print Services involve managing hardcopy device fleets in a unified fashion...
Market along with MPS market leading consulting and software services delivering a large impact for this relatively small acquisition.
Chief executives
| Name | Title | Tenure | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| George C. Seager | President | 1906–1912 | |
| Gilbert E. Mosher | President | 1912–1938 | |
| Joseph R. Wilson | President | 1938–1946 | |
| Joseph C. Wilson | President CEO |
1946–1966 1961–1967 |
|
| C. Peter McColough Charles Peter McColough Charles Peter Philip Paul McColough was the joint creater, founder, and owner of the Xerox Corporation , and was a former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Xerox. He retired in the late 1980s, after serving over 14 years as CEO... |
CEO | 1968–1982 | |
| David T. Kearns David T. Kearns David Todd Kearns was an American businessman who was CEO of Xerox Corporation and Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education . He died on the 25th of February, 2011.-Early life:... |
CEO | 1982 – July 31, 1990 | |
| Paul A. Allaire Paul Allaire Paul Arthur Allaire is a businessman who served as CEO and Chairman of Xerox Corporation, and as a director on several other public companies.He was first hired by Xerox in 1966.... |
CEO | August 1, 1990 – April 6, 1999 | |
| G. Richard Thoman | CEO | April 7, 1999 – May 10, 2000 | |
| Paul A. Allaire | CEO | May 11, 2000 – July 31, 2001 | |
| Anne M. Mulcahy Anne M. Mulcahy Anne M. Mulcahy is former chairwoman and CEO of Xerox Corporation. She was named CEO of Xerox on August 1, 2001, and chairwoman on January 1, 2002. In addition to serving on the Xerox board, she has been a member of the boards of directors of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd... |
CEO | August 1, 2001 – July 1, 2009 | |
| Ursula M. Burns | CEO | July 1, 2009 – present |
Current products
Xerox today manufactures and sells a wide variety of office and production equipment including LCD Monitors, photo copiers, Xerox PhaserXerox Phaser
Xerox Phaser is the brand name for a line of color and monochrome printers produced and sold by Xerox. Some Phaser printers use Xerox Solid Ink technology...
printers, multifunction printer
Multifunction printer
An MFP , multifunctional, all-in-one , or Multifunction Device , is an office machine which incorporates the functionality of multiple devices in one, so as to have a smaller footprint in a home or small business setting , or to provide centralized document...
s, large-volume digital printers as well as workflow software under the brand strategy of FreeFlow. The impact of Xerox FreeFlow products on the graphic arts market and the print industry in general has grown exponentially since May 2006, largely as a result of the Xerox presence at IPEX 2006. Xerox also sells scanner
Image scanner
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
s and digital presses. On 29 May 2008, Xerox launched the Xerox iGen4 Press.
Xerox sells both color and black and white printers under the Xerox Phaser
Xerox Phaser
Xerox Phaser is the brand name for a line of color and monochrome printers produced and sold by Xerox. Some Phaser printers use Xerox Solid Ink technology...
brand, with the color consumer model starting at US$299; the most expensive color model costs US$6,799.
Xerox also produces fax machines, professional printers, black and white copiers, and several other products.
In addition, Xerox produces many printing and office supplies such as paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, in many forms; and markets software such as Xerox DocuShare
Xerox Docushare
DocuShare is a content management system developed by Xerox Corporation . DocuShare makes use of open standards and allows for managing content, integrating it with other business systems, and developing customized and packaged software applications.-History:...
, Xerox MarketPort and FlowPort, offers consulting services, ECM
Enterprise content management
Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...
Digital Repository Services and printing outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
.
Corporate structure
Although Xerox is a global brandBrand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
, it maintains a joint venture, Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox
is a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co. and the American document management company Xerox to develop, produce and sell xerographic and document-related products and services in the Asia-Pacific region...
, with Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co.
Fujifilm
is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...
to develop, produce and sell in the Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
-Pacific region. Fuji Photo Film Co. is currently the majority stakeholder, with 75% of the shareholding.
Xerox India
Xerox India
Xerox India is the Indian subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, based in Gurgaon, India the American printer, photocopier, document supplies, technology & services company....
, formerly Modi Xerox, is Xerox's Indian subsidiary derived from a joint venture formed between Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Modi and Rank Xerox in 1983. Xerox obtained a majority stake in 1999 and aims to buy out the remaining shareholders.
NewField IT is a wholy owned subsidiary of Xerox that implements and supports third party software for MPS providers.
Xerox now sponsors the Factory Ducati Team in the World Superbike Championship, under the name of the "Xerox Ducati".
Rank Xerox
Rank Xerox
Rank Xerox was formed in 1956 as a joint venture between the Xerox Corporation of U.S. and the Rank Organisation of UK, to manufacture and market Xerox equipment initially in Europe and later in Africa and Asia...
, later extended to Asia and Africa, has been fully owned by Xerox Corporation since 1997. The Rank Xerox name was discontinued following the buyout, and the Rank Xerox Research Centre was renamed to the Xerox Research Centre Europe.
Accounting irregularities
On April 11, 2002, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Xerox. The complaint alleged Xerox deceived the public between 1997 and 2000 by employing several "accounting maneuvers," the most significant of which was a change in which Xerox recorded revenue from copy machine leases – recognizing a "sale" when a lease contract was signed, instead of recognizing revenue over the entire length of the contract. At issue was when the recenue was recognized, not the validity of the revenue. Xerox's restatement only changed what year the revenue was recognized.In response to the SEC's complaint, Xerox Corporation neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. It agreed to pay a $10 million penalty and to restate its financial results for the years 1997 through 2000. On June 5, 2003, six Xerox senior executives accused of securities fraud settled their issues with the SEC and neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. They agreed to pay $22 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest.
On January 29, 2003, the SEC filed a complaint against Xerox's auditors, KPMG
KPMG
KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....
, alleging four partners in the "Big Five" accounting firm permitted Xerox to "cook the books" to fill a $3 billion "gap" in revenue and $1.4 billion "gap" in pre-tax earnings. In April 2005 KPMG settled with the SEC by paying a US$22.48 million fine. As part of the settlement KPMG neither admits nor denies wrongdoingf.
During settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Xerox began to revamp itself once more. As a symbol of this transformation, the relative size of the word "Xerox" was increased in proportion to "The Document Company" on the corporate signature and the latter was dropped altogether in September-2004, along with the digital X. However, the digital X and "The Document Company" were still used by Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox
is a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fuji Photo Film Co. and the American document management company Xerox to develop, produce and sell xerographic and document-related products and services in the Asia-Pacific region...
until April-2008.
Trademark
The word "xerox" is commonly used as a synonym for "photocopy" (both as a noun and a verb) in many areas; for example,"I xeroxed the document and placed it on your desk." or "Please make a xeroxed copy of the articles and hand them out a week before the exam". Though both are common, the company does not condone such uses of its trademark, and is particularly concerned about the ongoing use of Xerox as a verbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
as this places the trademark in danger of being declared a generic word
Genericized trademark
A genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, rather than as an indicator of source or affiliation as intended by the trademark's holder...
by the courts. The company is engaged in an ongoing advertising and media campaign to convince the public that Xerox should not be used as a verb.
To this end, the company has written no publications that have used Xerox as a verb, and has also purchased print advertisements declaring that "you cannot 'xerox' a document, but you can copy it on a Xerox Brand copying machine". Xerox Corporation continues to protect its trademark in most if not all trademark categories. Despite their efforts, many dictionaries continue to include the use of "xerox" as a verb, including the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
.