In a public letter penned to the new Xerox CEO, Jon Visentin, Fujifilm’s helmsman has criticised Xerox’s recent actions and called for “more respectful” dealings henceforth.
At the beginning of this week, Xerox’s CEO, Jon Visentin, published an open letter to Fujifilm in which he said that “Fujifilm should realise that the internal accounting issues at Fuji Xerox were a result of their mismanagement”, adding, “We cannot stand by and let them further harm our iconic brand.”
His letter also stated, “Fujifilm’s actions have forced us to move forward on several fronts to protect our supply chain” and said, “we currently believe Xerox will be much better served by not renewing our Technology Agreement with Fuji Xerox when it expires.”
Now Fujifilm’s CEO, Shigetaka Komori, has penned his own letter in response, in which he condemned Xerox’s “misleading misstatements” and said that Visentin’s “stated reasons for terminating our deal are merely a thinly veiled pretext to bargain for a higher price from Fujifilm at the behest of two minority shareholders.”
The fiery missive went on to address what Komori describes as Visentin’s “outrageous mischaracterisations of the past accounting issues at Fuji Xerox”, and pointed out that, as Xerox is also a shareholder of Fuji Xerox, it is an “obvious mistake to accuse only one party of the joint venture for the accounting issue.”
Regarding Xerox’s assertion that it is in the OEM’s best interests not to renew the Technology Agreement it holds with Fuji Xerox, Komori wrote, “we are prepared to respond by competing with Xerox here in Asia Pacific, and by marketing in territory where Xerox is currently doing business unchallenged by us, such as America and Europe.”
The Fujifilm CEO concluded his letter by revealing that Visentin’s own letter was publicised before reaching him, and called for “more respectful” communications going forward.
