Xerox will cut 15% of its workforce in the first quarter of 2024

Xerox said Wednesday it has cut 15 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring, the company’s latest effort to shift focus toward its business services offerings and away from its iconic photocopiers.

In a press releasethe company said it would reduce its global workforce, which stood at approximately 23,000 employees in 2022, and appoint a new leadership team. The layoffs are expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024.

The company’s shares fell more than 12 percent after the layoff news was announced. Its stock price had risen steadily over the past year, in part because Xerox saved billions of dollars after starting a cost-cutting program in 2018. It reported a a decrease of about 6 percent in sales in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year.

Xerox was founded in 1906 as Haloid Company. After becoming best known for producing photocopiers throughout the 20th century – so much so that “Xerox” became a verb – and under pressure from Japanese competitors such as Canon, the company focused more on financial services, such as insurance and real estate.

That strategy ultimately failed and the company sold those divisions in the 1990s. In recent years, Xerox has struggled to adapt to the digital age as demand for ink and printed documents dwindles.

The transition would happen in fits and starts, with a series of moves that yielded no gains.

Led by Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox, the company sought to strengthen its business services business by helping clients streamline human resources and healthcare document flow and handle payment systems. In 2010 it is purchased Affiliated Computer Services, which manages the computer payment services for the E-ZPass highway tolls, for $6.4 billion.

But Xerox out of stock its information technology outsourcing business topped $1 billion in 2014, and competition from China in manufacturing cartridge clone makers hurt profits. The company also tried to make progress in 3D printing, but was unsuccessful sold that business unitalso in August 2023.

In 2018, the company announced that it was merging with Fujifilm, the Japanese conglomerate. That merger was called off less than three months later after activist shareholders, most notably Carl Icahn, protested the move because it undervalued Xerox. In 2019, Xerox attempted to acquire HP, but that deal was also called off after HP rejected it due to concerns about Xerox’s financial health.