Staples Parts With Its Print Solutions Business

The beginning of a note on Investopedia….

Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) still intends on buying its office supplies retail rival Office Depot (NASDAQ: ODP) despite the FTC's attempts to block the merger, and it recently announced it was selling its print solutions business for an undisclosed sum to help further that end.

The print solutions division offers printing services to businesses, including business cards, brochures, labels, and packaging options. The business will be acquired by Taylor's communications subsidiary, which was formed last year after bidding on Standard Register, a communications services company for financial services, healthcare, retail, and industrial markets that went bankrupt after over 100 years in business.

Staples copy and print business has been a key performing segment and has grown to account for nearly 10% of its retail sales with gross margins well in excess of the company as a whole.

Read the full note at this link:

http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/042116/staples-parts-its-print-solutions-business-amzn-odp-spls.aspx?partner=YahooSA

Xerox Revenue Down

Part of a post that appeared today on The Motley Fool

What: Shares of Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX) fell as much as 13.6% Monday after the company announced mixed first-quarter 2016 results and weaker-than-expected guidance.

So what: Quarterly revenue fell 4.2% year over year, to $4.28 billion, notably including a 1% increase in services revenue to $2.5 billion, and a 10% decline in document technology revenue, to $1.6 billion. That translated to a 16.9% decline in adjusted net income, to $231 million, or $0.22 per share. Analysts, on average, were anticipating slightly higher adjusted earnings of $0.23 per share on slightly lower revenue of $4.24 billion.

Recall in late January Xerox unveiled a plan to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies: an $11 billion document technology company, and a $7 billion business process outsourcing company. At the time, Xerox told investors it expected the transition to be complete by the end of this year, along with a transformation program anticipated to deliver $2.4 billion in savings over the next three years to both companies. Xerox confirmed today that the separation is still on track to be complete by the end of this year, and that it has determined the "optimal transaction structure" is a tax-free spinoff of the business process outsourcing segment. As such, Xerox will incur one-time separation costs of roughly $200 million to $250 million this year, as well as total restructuring and related costs of $300 million.

RGS Fast-Tracks Large-format Color Printing Services with Two HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers

RGS ReproGraphic Solutions, a digital imaging and document management services company for the design and construction industry, installed two HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers in its Las Vegas, Nevada location to expand and increase its large-format color printing capabilities. Since the installation in January 2016, the company has been able to enhance the services offered to its customers, providing faster color printing as well as high-quality presentation graphics, while increasing efficiency. With the HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers, RGS has been able to far exceed the print quality of its previous technology, while streamlining operation.

RGS, a member of the RGS Group of Companies, selected HP large-format printing technology to handle all of its large-format color printing services because of its quality, speed and versatility. The HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers enable the company to produce business presentations, architectural renderings, posters and other color projects on a wide media range up to 40 inches at breakthrough speeds, while setting a new technical document quality standard with crisp lines, fine detail and smooth grayscales. In addition, RGS installed HP DesignJet Z6200 and Z6800 Photo Production Printers to provide power and flexibility for high-quality signs, displays and roll-up banners. With more efficient, faster large-format color printing, RGS can generate new revenue streams and excel in the service and quality that their customers have come to expect.

“The RGS production team has definitely put the HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers to the test, and we have been very impressed by the combination of quality and speed,” said Billy Hamilton, CEO, RGS Group of Companies. “Prior to installing the HP PageWide XL 8000 Printers, processing files for color jobs took hours, and now we can process the same files in a fraction of the time. We have been extremely satisfied with the results of these products for our market, and our customers are happy, which makes us happy.”

Aconex Agrees to Acquire Conject and Launches Capital Raising

March 17, 2016

Acquisition Will Provide Strong Construction Collaboration Market Footprint throughout Europe

MELBOURNE, Australia, 17 March 2016 – Aconex Limited (ASX: ACX), provider of a leading cloud and mobile collaboration platform for the global construction industry, today announced an agreement to acquire Conject Holding GmbH, a leading cloud and mobile collaboration service provider in Europe and other regions, for a total cash consideration of €65 million (A$96.0 million).1 The transaction is expected to close on or about 31 March 2016, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. 

Stantec to acquire 280-person Chicago-based architecture firm VOA

From release published on Stantec’s web-site in Feb 2016

Continues expansion of building design practice across the US

Global design firm Stantec has signed a letter of intent to acquire VOA Associates Incorporated (VOA), a 280-person Chicago-based architecture and planning firm. VOA is recognized for dynamic building designs serving major clients in the hospitality, commercial, healthcare, workplace, entertainment and cultural, and government sectors. With commissions across the US and internationally, VOA has additional office locations in New York, NY; Washington, DC; Orlando, FL; and Highland, IN.

The HP PageWide XL versus an OCE Mono and OCE Color printer together 2 against one

Copied from YouTube:

Published on Dec 1, 2015

This video looks at a real life example in a reprographics company. A Reprographics company has to produce a job for a client as follows: 6 sets of a 120 page PDF with mixed content of color and mono pages, what’s the best solution for the company?

This video will test two options available today:

1 x HP PageWide XL 8000 printer with HP SmartStream software.

And 2 x Oce printers, the TDS750 LED printer for fast monochrome printing, and the Colorwave 600 for the color printing, both working with the Oce Reprodesk software.

Remember the client wants to have 6 x fully collated sets delivered.

Want to know how each solution compared? Let’s find out…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOIRRl_TdzY