Xerox CEO Ursula Burns Kills The Company

Ursula Burns, Xerox’s (NYSE: XRX) CEO for three years, has allowed the company to be crushed by the digital age. The trouble shows in Xerox’s shares which are down 40% in the last two years.

Xerox recently announced third quarter earnings. Revenue fell 3% to $5.4 billion. EPS dropped 9% to 21%. And, the company warned about future numbers

Burns said:

“Steady growth in services is consistent with our strategy. Scaling our offerings in business process, IT and document outsourcing gives us a diversified portfolio that helps mitigate declines in equipment sales and supplies”

But, the process has not worked.

Xerox’s technology revenue dropped 7% in the third quarter, and other units could not make up for that.

Burns cannot blame a poor economy for her inability to make the company thrive in a harsh economic environment, or even to hold its own. Revenue was up only 1% in the first quarter to $5.5 billion. Net income was down. The pattern repeated itself in the second quarter. The state of the economy has not been the major factor in the much company’s problems recently.

Xerox wants to be known as more than a printing company, and perhaps it is. But the transformation is far from successful.

Douglas A. McIntyre