Lexmark

Lexmark International, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: LXK S&P 400
Industry	Document management system Enterprise Content Management Managed Print Services Printer (computing) Enterprise output management
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Lexington, Kentucky, U.S
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Paul Rooke (Chairman and CEO)
Products	Printers Enterprise Content Management Business process management Managed Print Services Toner Printer ink
Revenue	US$ 3.797 billion (2012)[1]
Operating income	US$ 187 million (2012)[1]
Net income	US$ 106 million (2012)[1]
Total assets	US$ 3.523 billion (2012)[1]
Total equity	US$ 1.281 billion (2012)[1]
Employees	13,200 (December 2010)[1]
Website	Lexmark

Lexmark International, Inc. is a U.S. corporation that manufactures laser printers and provides enterprise services. The company is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, in the United States.

History

Lexmark was formed in 1991 when IBM divested its printer and printer supply operations to the investment firm Clayton & Dubilier & Rice, Inc. in a leveraged buyout.^[2][3] Lexmark became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange on November 15, 1995.^[4]

Operations

The firm's corporate and research and development (R&D) offices are located at the headquarters in Lexington with additional R&D facilities located in Boulder, Colorado; Kansas City, Kansas; Cebu, Philippines; and Kolkata, West Bengal, India.^[5] Lexmark has offices throughout North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. The company has more than 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to manufacturing hardware under their own name, Lexmark is also the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of printers for other major companies, such as Dell and IBM InfoPrint. Lexmark also develops printing solutions and services developed to run on a touch screen that is located on the printer or MFP that provides access to many software applications that reduce the complexities of manual paper processes.

Acquisitions

In May 2010, Lexmark acquired Perceptive Software to build upon and strengthen Lexmark's industry-focused document workflow solutions and managed print services offerings.^[6] Perceptive Software is a software firm that develops enterprise content management (ECM), business process management (BPM), and document output management (DOM) applications.[2] Headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, with regional offices in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

In 2011, Lexmark International purchased Netherlands-based Pallas Athena in a cash transaction valued at approximately $50.2 million.^[7] The Dutch company is now part of Perceptive Software. The purchase of Pallas Athena builds upon and strengthens Lexmark's end-to-end managed print services (MPS) and business process solutions with the addition of business process management (BPM), document output management (DOM) and process mining software capabilities. The Pallas Athena brand was integrated into two areas of Perceptive Software, "Perceptive Process" and "Perceptive Content".^[8]

In March 2012, Lexmark announced the acquisition of Luxembourg-based BDGB Enterprise, including its U.S. subsidiary Brainware, Inc., for a cash purchase price of approximately $148 million.^[9] Brainware's intelligent data capture platform accurately extracts critical information from paper and electronic documents, validates the extracted data and passes it to customers' data management systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and/or financial management systems. The Brainware brand was integrated into "Perceptive Intelligent Capture, powered by Brainware", on October 15, 2012.^[10]

In March 2012, Lexmark acquired Australia-based ISYS Search Software for $32 million and U.S.-based Nolij Corporation for $32 million.^[11] ISYS builds enterprise search solutions, and Nolij develops Web-based document imaging and workflow software. The ISYS brand was integrated into "Perceptive Search" and the Nolij brand was integrated into "Perceptive Content".^[8]

In January 2013, Lexmark acquired Minnesota-based Acuo Technologies for $45 million. Acuo Technologies develops medical imaging document management software.^[12]

In March 2013, Lexmark announced acquisitions of AccessVia and Twistage for a combined purchase price of approximately $31.5 million.^[13]

In late August 2013, Lexmark signed an agreement to acquire Germany-based Saperion AG, a leading developer and provider of enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) software in Europe, for a cash purchase price of approximately $72 million.^[14]

In early October 2013, Lexmark acquired PACSGEAR, a leading provider of connectivity solutions for medical image management and electronic health records, for a cash purchase price of approximately $54 million. PACSGEAR will report into Perceptive Software.^[15]

Inkjet exit

In August 2012, Lexmark announced that it will be stopping production of its inkjet printer line.^[16][17] By doing so, Lexmark will close an inkjet supplies manufacturing facility in the Philippines by the end of 2015. Lexmark will continue to provide service, support and aftermarket supplies for its inkjet installed base.^[18]

In April 2013, Funai Electric Company, Ltd. announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire Lexmark's inkjet technology and assets for approximately $100 million (approximately ¥ 9.5 billion).

Upon closing of the transaction, Funai will acquire more than 1,500 inkjet patents, Lexmark's inkjet-related research and development assets and tools, all outstanding shares and the manufacturing facility of Lexmark International (Philippines), Inc., and other inkjet-related technologies and assets. Through this transaction, Funai will acquire the capabilities to develop, manufacture and sell inkjet hardware as well as inkjet supplies. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close within the first half of 2013.^[19]

Legal cases

A court victory in 2005 was handed to Lexmark in the case of ACRA v. Lexmark. This case states that Lexmark can enforce the “single use only” policy written on the side of Lexmark printer cartridge boxes sold to certain large customers at a discount, with the understanding that the customers will return the cartridges to Lexmark after using them. This means that these customers can face lawsuits if they breach the agreements, and do not return the cartridges.

Also in 2005, Lexmark suffered a legal defeat in the case of Lexmark Int'l v. Static Control Components, when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Lexmark's petition for a writ of certiorari, thereby rejecting their attempt to have the Court hear their case. In this case, the defendant was a manufacturer of microchips that allowed third-party ink and toner cartridges to work on printers, including many manufactured by Lexmark. Such printers incorporated a feature that would require authentication from a microchip within the ink/toner cartridge in order to function; this was designed to prohibit users from refilling the cartridges. Yet a recent firmware update allowed Lexmark to prevent end users from refilling ink cartridges or using third-party ink cartridges.

See also

• List of Lexmark products

References

External links

• Official website
• EFF: Lexmark v. Static Control Components Inc.