Out of respect of the below comment I have removed this blog as it was written.
What I would say is from an industry perspective does Xerox intend to always have a wholly owned entity selling multiple brands?
That is the reason why I moved to IKON was I loved the idea of having a complete set of tools and not being locked in to one manufacturer. This "best of breed" concept gives a saleperson a lot of flexibillity. If this is the case then Global will be the only show in town with the ability to pull from the expansive "soup to nuts" portfolio of Xerox with the help of an inexpensive fleet line like Sharp or to meet some special interests or needs with the sometimes very unique offerings of Konica Minolta.
It will be the only time in recent history where a manufacturer was ok with running like this. Canon would rather cut their arm off then let one of their businesses sell another manufactures product. In fact I have spoken to people at Canon that have been planning for months on what they are going to do with their new tool "Oce/Imagistics"
Look how they delt with IKON, they didnt take any time at all to cut IKON off and they were just a distributor. Ricoh was the same way but used a little better judgment in their timing and transition. We are seeing different leadership styles coming from each of the manufactures it will be interesting to see how it all plays out over time. From what I had heard the acquisition of Global was the only one where they increased their market share during and shortly after the acquisition. If true this shows strong leadership and good planning on both sides. The question still remains how long will this relationship continue and how will that play out for the folks at Global.
For now they run on their own P & L and to the beat of their own drummer. Only time will tell if this is a permanent arrangement or not.
Pirate Mike
