Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and
digital document
An electronic document is any electronic media content (other than computer programs or system files) that is intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output. Originally, any computer data were considered as something intern ...
products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in
Norwalk, Connecticut
, image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 230px
, map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...
(having moved from
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
, in October 2007), though it is incorporated in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
with its largest population of employees based around
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, the area in which the company was founded. The company purchased
Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Texas ...
for $6.4 billion in early 2010. As a large developed company, it is consistently placed in the list of
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
companies.
On December 31, 2016, Xerox separated its business process service operations, essentially those operations acquired with the purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, into a new publicly traded company,
Conduent
Conduent Inc. is an American business services provider company headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. It was formed in 2017 as a divestiture from Xerox. The company offers digital platforms for businesses and governments. , it had over 31 ...
. Xerox focuses on its document technology and document outsourcing business, and traded on the
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...
from 1961 to 2021, and the
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
since 2021.
Researchers at Xerox and its
Palo Alto Research Center
PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...
invented several important elements of
personal computing
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...
, such as the
desktop metaphor
In computing, the desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users interact more easily with the computer. The desktop metaphor treats the computer monitor as if it is t ...
GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
, the
computer mouse
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth c ...
and
desktop computing
A desktop traditionally refers to:
* The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor)
Desktop may refer to various compu ...
. The concepts were adopted by
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
and later
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
.
History
Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York, as The Haloid Photographic Company.
[Online Fact Book: Xerox at a Glance](_blank)
, xerox.com. Article retrieved December 13, 2006. It manufactured photographic paper and equipment.
In 1938,
Chester Carlson
Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington.
Carlson invented electrophotography, the process used by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Ca ...
, a physicist working independently, invented a process for printing images using an electrically charged photoconductor-coated metal plate
and dry powder "toner". However, it would take more than 20 years of refinement before the first automated machine to make copies was commercialized, using a document feeder, scanning light, and a
rotating drum.
Joseph C. Wilson
Joseph Charles Wilson IV (November 6, 1949 – September 27, 2019) was an American diplomat who was best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his ''New Y ...
, credited as the "founder of Xerox", took over Haloid from his father. He saw the promise of Carlson's invention and, in 1946, signed an agreement to develop it as a commercial product. Wilson remained as President/CEO of Xerox until 1967 and served as chairman until his death in 1971.
Looking for a term to differentiate its new system, Haloid hired a Greek scholar at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
and coined the term
xerography
Xerography is a dry photocopying technique. Originally called electrophotography, it was renamed xerography—from the roots el, ξηρός, label=none ''xeros'', meaning "dry" and -γραφία ''-graphia'', meaning "writing"—to emphasize ...
from two Greek roots meaning "dry writing".
Haloid changed its name to Haloid Xerox in 1958 and then Xerox Corporation in 1961.
["Xerox Hopes Its New Logo Doesn't Say 'Copier'"](_blank)
, NYT.com. Article retrieved January 7, 2008.
Before releasing the 914, Xerox tested the market by introducing a developed version of the prototype hand-operated equipment known as the Flat-plate 1385. The 1385 was not actually a viable copier because of its slowness of operation. As a consequence, it was sold as a platemaker for the
Addressograph-Multigraph Multilith 1250 and related sheet-fed offset printing presses in the
offset lithography
Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on ...
market. It was little more than a high quality, commercially available plate camera mounted as a horizontal
rostrum camera
A rostrum camera is a specially designed camera used in television production and filmmaking to animate a still picture or object. It consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is placed above ...
, complete with photo-flood lighting and timer. The glass film/plate had been replaced with a selenium-coated aluminum plate. 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 lithography duplicating industry, Xerox now set its sights on capturing some of offset's market share.
The 1385 was followed by the first automatic xerographic printer, the Copyflo, in 1955. The Copyflo was a large microfilm printer that could produce 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. A scaled-down version of this gripper feed system was to become the basis for the 813 desktop copier.
Xerox 914
The company came to prominence in 1959 with the introduction of the Xerox 914, "the most successful single product of all time." The 914, the first
plain paper photocopier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...
, was developed by Carlson and
John H. Dessauer; it was so popular that by the end of 1961 Xerox had almost $60 million in revenue. The product was sold by an innovative ad campaign showing that even monkeys could make copies at the touch of a button - simplicity would become the foundation of Xerox products and user interfaces. Revenues leaped to over $500 million by 1965.
Xeronic Computer Printer
In 1956, Haloid formed a joint venture in the UK with
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
whose Rank Precision Industries Ltd. subsidiary was charged with anglicising the US products. Rank's Precision Industries went on to develop the Xeronic computer printer and Rank Data Systems Ltd was set up to bring the product to market. It used
cathode ray tube
A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms ( oscilloscope), pictu ...
s to generate the characters and forms that could be overlaid from
microfilm
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...
images. Initially, they planned for the
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The firm was known ...
and AEI computer companies to sell the Xeronic as an on-line peripheral, but due to interface problems, Rank switched to a magnetic tape off-line technique. In 1962, Lyons Computers Ltd. placed an order for use with their
LEO III computer, and the printer was delivered in 1964. It printed 2,888 lines per minute, slower than the target of 5,000 lpm.
1960s
In the 1960s, Xerox held a dominant position in the
photocopier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...
market. In 1960, a xerography research facility called the Wilson Center for Research and Technology was opened in
Webster, New York
Webster is a town in the northeastern 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. The town's motto is "Where Life Is Worth Living." ...
. In 1961, the company changed its name to Xerox Corporation. Xerox common stock (XRX) was listed on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
in 1961 and on the
Chicago Stock Exchange
NYSE Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), is a stock exchange in Chicago, Illinois, US. The exchange is a national securities exchange and self-regulatory organization, which operates under the oversight of the U.S. Sec ...
in 1990.
In 1963, Xerox introduced the Xerox 813, the first desktop plain-paper copier, realizing Carlson's vision of a copier that could fit on anyone's office desk. Ten years later, in 1973, a basic, analogue, color copier, based on the 914, followed. The 914 itself was gradually sped 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.
Xerox's first foray into duplicating, as distinct from copying, was with the Xerox 2400, introduced in 1966. The model number denoted the number of prints produced in an hour. Although not as fast as
offset printing
Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...
, this machine introduced the industry's first automatic document feeder, paper slitter and perforator, and collator (sorter). This product was soon sped up by fifty percent to become the Xerox 3600 Duplicator.
Meanwhile, a small lab team was borrowing 914 copiers and modifying them. The lab was developing what it called long distance xerography (LDX) to connect two copiers using the public telephone network, so that a document scanned on one machine would print out on the other. The LDX system was introduced in 1964. Many years later, this work came to fruition in the Xerox telecopiers, seminal to today's
fax machine
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
s. The fax operation in today's multifunction copiers is true to Carlson's original vision for these devices.
In 1968,
C. Peter McColough, a longtime executive of Haloid and Xerox, became Xerox's CEO. The same year, the company consolidated its headquarters at Xerox Square in downtown
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, with its 30-story
Xerox Tower
Innovation Square, formerly Xerox Tower, is a skyscraper in downtown Rochester, New York, standing at tall. The tower is the centerpiece of a roughly complex named ''Xerox Square''. When it was built in 1967, it was the tallest building made of ...
.
Xerox embarked on a series of acquisitions. It purchased
University Microfilms International
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providi ...
in 1962, Electro-Optical Systems in 1963,
and
R. R. Bowker
R. R. Bowker LLC (trading as Bowker) is an American limited liability company domiciled under Delaware Limited Liability Company Law and based in Chatham, New Jersey. Among other things, Bowker provides bibliographic information on publish ...
in 1967. In 1969, Xerox acquired
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems (SDS), was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky and Robert Beck, veterans of Packard Bell Corporation and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of i ...
(SDS), which it renamed the Xerox Data Systems (XDS) division and which produced the
Sigma
Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...
line and its successor XDS 5xx series of
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
s in the 1960s and 1970s. Xerox sold XDS to
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
in 1975.
File:Xerox Tower.JPG, Xerox Tower
Innovation Square, formerly Xerox Tower, is a skyscraper in downtown Rochester, New York, standing at tall. The tower is the centerpiece of a roughly complex named ''Xerox Square''. When it was built in 1967, it was the tallest building made of ...
in Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, served as headquarters from 1968 to 1969.
File:Xeroxheadquarters.jpg, Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
served as headquarters from 1969 to 2007.
File:Xerox Henrietta facility.JPG, Former manufacturing facility in Henrietta, New York
Henrietta is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States and a suburb of Rochester. The population of Henrietta is 47,096, according to the 2020 United States Census. Henrietta is home to the Rochester Institute of Technology and to one of t ...
, constructed in the 1960s and sold to Harris RF Communications in 2010
File:XeroxTower-DLighting.jpg, Xerox Canada Head Office at North American Life Centre (Xerox Tower), North York, Ontario
File:XeroxTrainingCenter2.jpg, Xerox Training Center
1970s
Archie McCardell
Archie R. McCardell (August 29, 1926 – July 10, 2008) 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 equipmen ...
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
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
s,
earnings Earnings are the net benefits of a corporation's operation. Earnings is also the amount on which corporate tax is due. For an analysis of specific aspects of corporate operations several more specific terms are used as EBIT (earnings before interes ...
and
profits in 1973, 1974, and 1975. John Carrol became a backer, later spreading the company throughout North America.
In the mid-1970s, Xerox introduced the "Xerox 9200 Duplicating System". Originally designed to be sold to print shops to increase their productivity, it was twice a fast as the 3600 duplicator at two impressions per second (7200 per hour). It was followed by the 9400, which did auto-duplexing, and then by the 9500, which was which added variable zoom reduction and electronic lightness/darkness control.
In a 1975
Super Bowl commercial for the 9200, Xerox debuted an advertising campaign featuring "Brother Dominic", a monk who used the 9200 system to save decades of manual copying. Before it was aired, there was some concern that the commercial would be denounced as blasphemous. However, when the commercial was screened for the Archbishop of New York, he found it amusing and gave it his blessing. Dominic, portrayed by
Jack Eagle
Jack Eagle (January 15, 1926 – January 10, 2008) was an American actor. He was best known for his work in television commercials, including his role as Brother Dominic in a Super Bowl commercial for Xerox.
Eagle was born in Brooklyn, New York, ...
, became the face of Xerox into the 1980s.
Following these years of record profits, in 1975, Xerox resolved an anti-trust suit with the United States
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
(FTC), which at the time was under the direction of
Frederic M. Scherer
Frederic Michael Scherer (born 1932 in Ottawa, Illinois) is an United States of America, American economist and expert on industrial organization. Since 2006, he continues as a professor of economics at the JFK School of Government at Harvard Unive ...
. The Xerox
consent decree resulted in the forced licensing of the company's entire
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
portfolio, mainly to Japanese competitors. Within four years of the consent decree, Xerox's share of the U.S.
copier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...
market dropped from nearly 100% to less than 14%.
In 1979, Xerox purchased Western Union International (WUI) as the basis for its proposed ''Xerox Telecommunications Network'' (XTEN) for local-loop communications. However, after three years, in 1982, the company decided the idea was a mistake and sold its assets to
MCI at a loss.
1980s
David T. Kearns
David Todd Kearns (August 11, 1930February 25, 2011) was an American businessman who was CEO of Xerox Corporation (1982–1990) and served as the first United States Deputy Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993.
Early life and education
Kear ...
, a Xerox executive since 1971, took over as CEO in 1982. The company was revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through improvement in quality design and realignment of its product line. Attempting to expand beyond copiers, in 1981 Xerox introduced a line of electronic memory typewriters, the ''Memorywriter'', which gained 20% market share, mostly at the expense of IBM.
In 1983, Xerox bought
Crum & Forster, an insurance company, and formed Xerox Financial Services (XFS) in 1984.
In 1985, Xerox sold all of its publishing subsidiaries including University Microfilms and R. R. Bowker.
The 6500 color copier was also introduced in 1986. The first one was sold in Philadelphia by Jack Schneider.
1990s
![Xerox logo 1994](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Xerox_logo_1994.svg)
In 1990,
Paul Allaire
Paul Arthur Allaire (July 21, 1938 – February 24, 2019) was an American entrepreneur who served as CEO and chairman of Xerox Corporation, and as a director on several other public companies.
Allaire graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Instit ...
, a Xerox executive since 1966, succeeded David Kearns, who had reached mandatory retirement age. Allaire disentangled Xerox from the financial services industry.
The development of digital photocopiers in the 1990s and a revamp of the entire product range again gave Xerox a technical lead over its competitors. In 1990, Xerox released the
DocuTech
DocuTech is the name given to a line of electronic production-publishing systems produced by Xerox Corporation. It allowed paper documents to be scanned, electronically edited, and then printed on demand. DocuTech systems were the last known to us ...
Production Publisher Model 135, ushering in print-on-demand. Digital photocopiers were essentially high-end laser printers with integrated scanners. Soon, additional features such as network printing and faxing were added to many models, known as Multi Function Machines, or just MFMs, which were able to be attached to computer networks. 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 in 1994, "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 April 1999, Allaire was succeeded by
Richard Thoman, who had been brought in from
IBM in 1997 as president. The first "outsider" to head Xerox, Thoman resigned in 2000.
2000s
After Thoman's resignation, Allaire again resumed the position of CEO and served until the appointment of
Anne M. Mulcahy, another long-term Xerox executive. Xerox's turnaround was largely led by Mulcahy, who was appointed president in May 2000, CEO in August 2001 and chairman in January 2002. She 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 2000, Xerox acquired
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment.
Originally an independent ...
color printing and imaging division in Wilsonville, Oregon, for US$925 million. This led to the current
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. Phaser printers were originally manufactured and marketed by Tektronix, of Wilsonville, Oregon.
...
line of products as well as Xerox
solid ink
Solid ink (also referred to as hot melt ink) is a type of ink used in printing. Solid ink is a waxy resin-based polymer that must be melted prior to usage unlike conventional liquid inks. The technology is used most in graphics and large for ...
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
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...
as an artifact in the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
.
In November 2006, Xerox completed the acquisition of XMPie. XMPie, a provider of software for cross-media, variable data one-to-one marketing, was the first acquisition of Xerox to remain independent entity, as a Xerox company and not a division, and to this day is led by its original founder Jacob Aizikowitz.
In October 2008, Xerox Canada Ltd. was named one of
Greater Toronto's Top Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual editorial competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions ...
by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' newspaper.
On July 1, 2009,
Ursula Burns
Ursula M. Burns (born September 20, 1958) is an American businesswoman. Burns is mostly known for being the CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016, the first among black women to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and the first woman to succeed another a ...
succeeded Anne Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox. Burns was the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
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 Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Texas ...
, a services and
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
company, 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.
2010s
In May 2011, Xerox acquired NewField IT for an undisclosed sum.
In December 2013, Xerox sold their Wilsonville, Oregon
solid ink
Solid ink (also referred to as hot melt ink) is a type of ink used in printing. Solid ink is a waxy resin-based polymer that must be melted prior to usage unlike conventional liquid inks. The technology is used most in graphics and large for ...
product design, engineering and chemistry group and related assets previously acquired from
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment.
Originally an independent ...
to
3D Systems for $32.5 million in cash.
In December 2014, Xerox sold the IT Outsourcing business it had acquired in 2009 from
Affiliated Computer Services
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Texas ...
to
Atos
Atos is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company headquartered in Bezons, France and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and ...
for $1.05 billion.
This move was taken due to the relatively slow growth of this business relative to some other Xerox units.
In January 2016, Xerox—reportedly under pressure from activist shareholder and corporate raider
Carl Icahn
Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes l ...
—announced that by the end of the year it would
spin off its business services unit, largely made up of Affiliated Computer Services, into its own
publicly traded company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
. The name and management of the new company had not been determined at the time of the announcement. Icahn will appoint three members of the new company's
board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, and he will choose a person to advise its search for a
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
. In June, the company announced that the document management business would retain the name Xerox and the new business services company would be named
Conduent
Conduent Inc. is an American business services provider company headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. It was formed in 2017 as a divestiture from Xerox. The company offers digital platforms for businesses and governments. , it had over 31 ...
. It also announced that
Ashok Vemuri will serve as Conduent's CEO and that Icahn will control three seats on the new company's board. It continues to seek a CEO for Xerox; in May, Burns announced her intention to step down as CEO but continue as chairman of the document management business. In June 2016, the company announced that
Jeff Jacobson will become the new CEO following the completion of the company's planned separation. This became effective in January 2017.
On January 31, 2018, Xerox announced that
Fujifilm
, trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals.
The offerings from th ...
had agreed to acquire a 50.1% controlling stake in the company for US$6.1 billion, which was to be combined into their existing joint venture
Fuji Xerox
was a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fujifilm Holdings and the American document management company Xerox to develop, produce and sell xerographic and document-related products and services in the Asia-Pacifi ...
(having a value of $18 billion post-acquisition).
On May 1, 2018, it was announced that Chairman Robert Keegan and CEO Jeff Jacobson and four other directors would resign as part of a deal with investors
Carl Icahn
Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American financier. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach. Icahn takes l ...
and Darwin Deason, who had mounted a proxy fight to oppose the Fujifilm deal. On May 4, Xerox backed away from the deal after stipulations about ceasing litigation were not met. Icahn and Deason responded with an open letter to shareholders blaming the board and management.
On May 13 a new deal was reached that additionally cancelled the Fujifilm transaction.
In November 2019, Xerox began to pursue a
hostile takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
of PC and printer manufacturer
HP Inc.
HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions.
It was formed on Novembe ...
, declaring its intent to "engage directly" with shareholders after HP rejected two unsolicited bids for the company. Xerox stated in January 2020 that it would pursue the replacement of HP's board.
HP has criticized the proposed purchase as a "flawed value exchange" based on "overstated synergies", and instituted a
shareholder rights plan
A shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", is a type of defensive tactic used by a corporation's board of directors against a takeover.
In the field of mergers and acquisitions, shareholder rights plans were devised in the ...
and other measures designed to quell the bid, which the company believed was being orchestrated by Icahn.
2020s
In February 2020, Xerox announced the hiring of Tali Rosman as VP of Xerox's 3D business. She joins Xerox from NICE, where she was vice president and head of business operations for the Americas. She will report to CTO Naresh Shanker.
On March 5, HP revealed that its board of directors has unanimously declined Xerox's $24 a share cash-and-stock offer.
On March 13, Xerox revealed that they are putting their campaign to acquire HP on hold by postponing additional presentations, interviews with the press and meetings with HP shareholders. Xerox Vice Chairman and Chief Executive John Visentin cited the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
as a main reason and said, "In light of the escalating Covid-19 pandemic, Xerox needs to prioritize health and safety of its employees, customers, partners and affiliates over and above all considerations, including its proposal to acquire HP."
On March 31, 2020, Xerox abolished its $24 a share offer.
In September 2020, Xerox opened its North Carolina Center of Excellence in Cary, North Carolina.
The Center includes the research and development operations, the 3-D printing lab, and th eXerox Digital eXperience IT organization.
In September 2021, Xerox announced it was transferring its stock ticker from the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
to the
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
after 60 years. The move, as described by Visentin, was to "
hallengethe status quo by developing and leveraging new innovations to create solutions that address major secular challenges across industries", and was viewed as part of Xerox's transition into software. The transfer went into effect on September 21, 2021.
Digital printing
The laser printer was invented in 1969 by Xerox researcher
Gary Starkweather
Gary Keith Starkweather (January 9, 1938 – December 26, 2019) was an American engineer and inventor most notable for the invention of the laser printer and color management.
Starkweather received a B.S. in physics from Michigan State Universi ...
by modifying a Xerox 7000 copier. Xerox management was afraid the product version of Starkweather's invention, which became the 9700, would negatively impact their copier business so the innovation sat in limbo until IBM launched the
3800
3000 (three thousand) is the natural number following 2999 and preceding 3001. It is the smallest number requiring thirteen letters in English (when "and" is required from 101 forward).
Selected numbers in the range 3001–3999
3001 to 3099 ...
laser printer in 1976.
The first commercial non-impact printer was the
Xerox 1200
The Xerox 1200 Computer Printing System is significant as being the first commercial non-impact Xerographic printer used to create computer output. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a laser printer, but it did not in fact have a laser.
...
, introduced in 1973, based on the 3600 copier. It had an optical character generator designed by optical engineer Phil Chen.
In 1977, following IBM's laser printer introduction, the
Xerox 9700 The Xerox 9700 was a high-end laser printer manufactured by Xerox Corporation beginning in 1977. Based on the Xerox 9200 copier, the 9700 printed at 300 dots-per-inch on cut-sheet paper at up to two pages per second (pps), one- or two-sided, that i ...
was introduced. Laser printing eventually became a multibillion-dollar business for Xerox.
In the late 1970s, Xerox introduced the "Xerox 350 color slide system." This product allowed the customer to create digital word and graphic 35-millimetre slides. Many of the concepts used in today's "Photo Shop" programs were pioneered with this technology.
In 1980, Xerox announced the 5700 laser printing system, a much smaller version of their 9700, but with revolutionary touch-screen capabilities and multiple media input (word processing disks, IBM magcards, etc.) and printer 'finishing' options. This product was allegedly never intended to make the commercial markets due to its development cost, but rather to show the innovation of Xerox. It took off with many customers, but was soon replaced with its smaller and lower cost Xerox 2700 Distributed Electronic Printer offering in 1982.
Palo Alto Research Center
![Xerox Alto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Xerox_Alto.jpg)
In 1970, under company president
C. Peter McColough, Xerox opened the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, known as Xerox PARC. The facility developed many modern computing technologies such as the
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
(GUI),
laser printing
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to d ...
,
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
text editors and
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
. From these inventions, Xerox PARC created the
Xerox Alto
The Xerox Alto is a computer designed from its inception to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface (GUI), later using the desktop metaphor. The first machines were introduced on 1 March 1973, a decade before mass-market G ...
in 1973, a small minicomputer similar to a modern
workstation
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...
or
personal computer
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
. 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. In addition, PARC also developed one of the earliest
internetworking
Internetworking is the practice of interconnecting multiple computer networks, such that any pair of hosts in the connected networks can exchange messages irrespective of their hardware-level networking technology. The resulting system of interco ...
protocol suites, the
PARC Universal Packet
The PARC Universal Packet (commonly abbreviated to PUP or PuP, although the original documents usually use Pup) was one of the two earliest internetworking protocol suites; it was created by researchers at Xerox PARC in the mid-1970s. (Technicall ...
(PUP).
In 1979, Steve Jobs made a deal with Xerox's venture capital division: He would let them invest $1 million in exchange for a look at the technology they were working on. Jobs and the others saw the commercial potential of the
WIMP
Wimp, WIMP, or Wimps may refer to:
Science and technology
* Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical particle of dark matter
* WIMP (computing), the "window, icon, menu, pointer" paradigm
* WIMP (software bundle), the web stack of Wind ...
(Window, Icon, Menu, and Pointing device) system and redirected development of the
Apple Lisa
Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It is one of the first personal computers to present a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Its development began in 1978. ...
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 Star
The Xerox Star workstation, officially named Xerox 8010 Information System, is the first commercial personal computer to incorporate technologies that have since become standard 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 () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
networking,
file server
In computing, a file server (or fileserver) is a computer attached to a network that provides a location for shared disk access, i.e. storage of computer files (such as text, image, sound, video) that can be accessed by the workstations that are ab ...
s,
print server In computer networking, a print server, or printer server, is a type of server that connects printers to client computers over a network. It accepts print jobs from the computers and sends the jobs to the appropriate printers, queuing the jobs local ...
s and
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
. The Xerox Star and its successor the
Xerox Daybreak
Xerox Daybreak (also Xerox 6085 PCS, Xerox 1186) is a workstation computer marketed by Xerox from 1985 to 1989.
Overview
Daybreak is the final release in the D* (pronounced D-Star) series of machines, some of which share the Wildflower CPU design ...
, despite their 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
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
considered buying Xerox; however, a deal was never reached. Apple instead bought rights to the Alto GUI and adapted it into a more affordable personal computer, aimed towards the business and education markets. The
Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
was released in 1984, and was the first personal computer to popularize the GUI and mouse among the public.
In 2002, PARC was spun off into an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of Xerox.
Chief executives
Products and services
![Xerox WorkCentre 6605 -7527](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Xerox_WorkCentre_6605_-7527.jpg)
Xerox manufactures and sells a wide variety of office equipment including scanners, printers, and multifunction systems that scan, print, copy, email and fax. These model families include WorkCentre, Phaser, and ColorQube.
For the graphic communications and commercial print industries, the Xerox product portfolio includes high-volume, digital printing presses, production printers, and wide format printers that use xerographic and inkjet printing technologies. Products include the iGen, Nuvera, DocuPrint, and Impika series, as well as the Trivor, iPrint, and Rialto (inkjet) machines.
Corporate structure
![Xerox logo (1968-2008)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Xerox_logo_%281968-2008%29.svg)
Although Xerox is a global
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
, it maintained a joint venture from 1962 to 2021,
Fuji Xerox
was a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fujifilm Holdings and the American document management company Xerox to develop, produce and sell xerographic and document-related products and services in the Asia-Pacifi ...
, with Japanese photographic firm
Fuji Photo Film Co. to develop, produce and sell in the
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
region. Fujifilm announced in January 2020 that it would not renew its technology agreement with Xerox, with Fuji Xerox being renamed to Fujifilm Business Innovation in April 2021.
Xerox India
Xerox India, based in Gurgaon, India, is the Indian subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, the American printer, photocopier, document supplies, technology & services company.
Originally Modi Xerox, the business was derived from a joint venture for ...
, 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 wholly 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 logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Rank_xerox_logo.png)
The European company
Rank Xerox
Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as:
Level or position in a hierarchical organization
* Academic rank
* Diplomatic rank
* Hierarchy
* ...
, 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. International Internet company NAVER acquired Xerox Research Centre Europe in June 2017.
Accounting irregularities
On May 31, 2001, Xerox Corporation announced that its auditors, KPMG LLP, had certified Xerox's financial statements for the three years ended December 31, 2000; the financials included some restatements. On March 31, 2002, Xerox restated its financials which reflected the reallocation of equipment sales revenue of more than $2 billion. On April 11, 2002, the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
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 revenue was recognized, not the validity of the revenue. Xerox's restatement only changed what year the revenue was recognized. On December 20, 2002, Xerox Corporation reported that it had discovered an error in the calculation of its non-cash interest expense related to a debt instrument and associated interest rate swap agreements, resulted in after-tax understatement of interest expense of approximately $5 million to $6 million or less than 1 cent per share in each of the four quarters of 2001 and for the first three quarters of 2002.
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. The company received approval to settle the securities lawsuit in 2008.
On January 29, 2003, the SEC filed a complaint against Xerox's auditors,
KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
, 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. Meanwhile, Xerox paid a civil penalty of $10 million. As part of the settlement KPMG neither admits nor denies wrongdoings.
During a settlement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
, 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
was a joint venture partnership between the Japanese photographic firm Fujifilm Holdings and the American document management company Xerox to develop, produce and sell xerographic and document-related products and services in the Asia-Pacifi ...
until April 2008.
Character substitution bug
In 2013, German computer scientist David Kriesel (
de) discovered an
error
An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'.
In statistics ...
in a Xerox WorkCentre 7535 copier. The device would substitute number digits in scanned documents, even when
OCR was turned off. For instance, a cost table in a scanned document had an entry of 85.40, instead of the original sum of 65.40. After unsuccessfully trying to resolve this issue with Xerox's customer support, he publicised his findings on his blog. Providing example pages that would lead to the bug occurring, it was confirmed that this bug was reproducible on a wide variety of Xerox WorkCentre and other high-end Xerox copiers.
The source of the error was a bug in the
JBIG2
JBIG2 is an image compression standard for bi-level images, developed by the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group. It is suitable for both lossless and lossy compression. According to a press release from the Group, in its lossless mode JBIG2 ty ...
implementation, which is an image compression standard that makes use of pattern matching to encode identical characters only once. While this provides a high level of compression, it is susceptible to errors in identifying similar characters.
A possible workaround was published by Kriesel, which involved setting the image quality from "normal" to "higher" or "high". Shortly afterwards, it was found that the same fix had been suggested in the printer manual, which mentioned the occurrence of character substitutions in "normal mode", indicating that Xerox was aware of the software error. In Xerox's initial response to a growing interest by the media, the error was described as occurring rarely and only when factory settings had been changed. After Kriesel provided evidence that the error was also occurring in all three image quality modes (normal, higher and high) including the factory defaults, Xerox corrected their statement and released a software patch to eliminate the problem. Despite the problem being present in some instances also in higher quality mode, Xerox advises users that they can use this mode as an alternative to applying the patch.
Trademark
The word ''xerox'' is used as a synonym for ''photocopy'' (both as a noun and a
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
) 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 verb 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 to publications that have used Xerox as a verb. It has also purchased print advertisements using "xerox" as a verb, claiming 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
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
''. In 2012, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) of India declared "xerox" a non-generic term after "almost 50 years (1963–2009) of continued existence on the register without challenge, and with proof of almost 44 years of use evident (1965–2009)", but as of 2015, most Indians still use it as a synonym for photocopying.
The company has also advertised its trademark concerns, in an attempt to persuade journalists and others not to use "Xerox" as a verb.
See also
*
Faxlore
Faxlore is a sort of folklore: humorous texts, folk poetry, folk art, and urban legends that are circulated, not by word of mouth, but by fax machine. Xeroxlore or photocopylore is similar material circulated by photocopying; compare samizdat i ...
, often called 'Xeroxlore'
Citations
General references
*
Ellis, Charles D.,
Joe Wilson and the Creation of Xerox', Wiley, 2006, .
*
Owen, David''Copies in Seconds: How a Lone Inventor and an Unknown Company Created the Biggest Communication Breakthrough Since Gutenberg—Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine'' Simon & Schuster, 2004, .
External links
*
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