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Seeing Double: Copier-Printer Maker Xerox to Split in Two

Xerox Corp. said Friday it would split into two companies, one for legacy hardware operations and the other a business process outsourcing unit.
Xerox
Xerox Corp. headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 2008. Douglas Healey / AP file

Xerox Corp. said Friday it would split into two companies, one holding its legacy hardware operations and the other its business process outsourcing unit.

The printer and copier maker also will give billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who holds an 8.13 percent stake, three seats on the board of the business process outsourcing company.

Xerox, whose shares had fallen more than 30 percent in the past 12 months, has been trying to turn itself around, shifting focus to software and services as business cost cutting and a switch to mobile devices hit demand for printers.

'4-D Printing' Technique Creates Objects That Change Over Time

Larger rival Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. also split its computer and printer businesses from its faster-growing corporate hardware and services operations last year to adjust to the post-PC computing era.