Tech company Xerox separated its services and traditional office supply sales by splitting itself into two publicly traded companies.
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As part of the spinoff deal, Icahn has bartered himself the ability to select three board members for the BPO business.
Xerox reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter that ended December 31, but revenue fell 8 percent from a year earlier.
Xerox is scheduled to report its results before the market opens Friday.
Xerox cited the need for greater agility and flexibility, the ability to innovate and adapt technology, and a more focused and efficient approach to operations.
For the current quarter ending in April, Xerox expects its per-share earnings to range from 21 cents to 24 cents. The document technology company will handle document management and document outsourcing, while the business process outsourcing business will help companies with automating and simplifying business processes. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. In November 2015, HP split into two companies: Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which sells hardware such as servers for data centres, and HP Inc., which sells PCs and printers. The companyÂ’s Services segment offers various business process outsourcing services, such as customer care, transaction processing, human resources, communication and marketing, and consulting and analytics services, as well as finance, accounting, and procurement services.
Some governance experts doubt Ms Burns will remain with Xerox, particularly since the decision to split the company was a reversal of a strategy she had pursued.
The names of the two companies and their leadership teams have yet to be determined. “We do see, to date, strategic value in having these two businesses together”, she said.
On Friday, Xerox announced that there will be two publicly traded entities.
While her future remains unclear, Icahn praised Burns for going through with the split.
These “significant actions… define the next chapter of our company”, CEO Ursula Burns said in a conference call Friday morning.
A representative from Xerox, which is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, declined to comment on plans to spin off the services business and on any discussions with Icahn. The company now has a market value of more than US$9.3 billion.
But contract hiccups in recent years have hurt growth from the same sectors that were supposed to save Xerox.
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“We know that we have a lot of work to do”, Ms. Burns said in October.
