A public letter to Xerox’s Board has expressed dissatisfaction with the potential deal.
A Xerox shareholder has written a letter to the OEM’s Board of Directors regarding the discussed deal with Fuji, that could see control of the company change hands, reports Rochester First.
Darwin Deason, who introduces himself as one of the OEM’s top five shareholders, has asked that the company’s existing partnership with Fujifilm, Fuji Xerox, faces further scrutiny before any more deals are made.
He points out that this is his first public letter to the Board in almost a decade as a shareholder, and states that he has taken this step “in order to protect all Xerox shareholders, and to ensure that the Company does not take further steps to damage our collective shareholding investment.”
Pulling no punches, he demands that the OEM “immediately disclose[s] its critical joint venture agreement with Fujifilm Holdings Corporation”, and that “the Board hire new and independent advisors following discussions with us to evaluate the Company’s strategic options with Fuji, including the potential termination of what I suspect but am unable to yet confirm is a one-sided value destroying agreement disfavouring Xerox.”
Deason goes on to say that shareholders, and potential new shareholders, have been left “perplexed and put off” by Xerox’s venture with Fuji, and that the non-disclosures of the terms of the deal is “breathtaking.”
“Furthering the harm,” he continues, “we read with interest that Xerox is now in discussions with Fuji to substantially alter its relationship with Fuji, which was material enough to warrant front page news in many of the most prominent financial news services, but left shareholders and potential shareholders guessing as to how to evaluate a change to a bedrock agreement guiding the Company’s future that is nowhere disclosed in its voluminous public filings.”
His letter concludes, saying that “all shareholders deserve to know now what Xerox’s rights are under the central existing agreement governing the Company’s future” so that they can make their opinions known with the benefit of the full weight of facts. Deason finishes by adding that following disclosure, he shall seek further discussion with the Board of Directors, regarding it.
