The Key Point Blog
We recently spoke to Mike Marusic, senior vice president of marketing and the Business Solutions Group for Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) to get an update on what it’s doing to combat the since-refuted speculation published by Japanese online publication Nikkei late this summer that the company might sell its copier and appliance businesses (See below for what we’ve learned about the back story on Sharp’s financial troubles.) Sharp Corporation in Japan issued a statement the very next day in Japan categorically denying the rumor and SIICA immediately sent out a letter explaining that to all of its dealers.
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Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) recently announced the expansion of its core business with the launch of Toshiba Managed Business Services (TMBS) unit. The new organization, which will be self-sufficient, will look to strengthen the company’s present business services offerings in managed print services (MPS), managed document solutions (MDS), document security, workflow/capture and barcode printing systems. In addition, TMBS will look to establish a Toshiba U.S. market presence in the retail kiosks and digital signage business. Its primary focus will be on the financial, healthcare, education and retail markets.
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Lexmark International has announced it will exit the inkjet business, a move that’s expected to result in annualized savings of $95 million once the restructuring plan is fully implemented. “We took a hard look at our business and determined that exiting inkjet was necessary in order to provide greater mind share and shift more resources toward delivering higher-value business solutions,” said Melissa Lucas, Lexmark media relations. “We are squarely focused on strengthening and broadening our portfolio of end-to-end solutions in order to help our customers make better sense of their unmanageable content and heighten the level of productivity within their business.”
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Celebrating its 100th year in business and 40th year in the document business, Sharp held its 2012 national dealer meeting on July 15-18 at the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Dallas, Texas. This year’s highlights included the announcement of two new high-volume color models, three light-production monochrome units and the big player: Sharp’s first device in the color production space.
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On June 21, Samsung Electronics America hosted a handful of industry analysts at its North American headquarters in Ridgefield Park, NJ to showcase its new color and monochrome printers and A3 MFPs and discuss the company’s 2012 printer and MFP channel strategy.
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