After acquiring the e-discovery services firm Lateral Data,
earlier this month,
Xerox Corporation
(
XRX
) has now entered into a definitive agreement to purchase UK-based
WDS. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
WDS counts large telecommunication companies among its clients, and
provides them with technical support, knowledge management and
associated consulting services. It employs more than 2,000 people
in the U.S., UK, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New
Zealand.
GlobalMine, WDS' proprietary cloud-based platform, captures,
analyzes and handles millions of technical support queries spread
across a diverse range of mobile devices. WDS uses this data to
assist clients in resolving service or device related problems
faced by their users.
WDS will be a healthy addition to Xerox's customer care solutions
portfolio. Xerox currently employs over 48,000 people across 150
locations for providing customer care solutions and manages above a
million interactions through the phone and the web daily.
The WDS acquisition, along with strengthening Xerox's position in
the industry, will add illustrious telecom companies to the
company's client base. Further, WDS' expertise and experience in
technical support services would positively contribute to Xerox's
offerings.
Xerox has been pretty active over the last two months, signing new
deals and making acquisitions. The company's first-quarter 2012
earnings of 23 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate
by a penny. Its revenues grew just 1% year over year in the
quarter.
Xerox has underperformed the S&P 500 so far this year. Through
these acquisitions and new deals, the company will look to expand
its top line and deliver better value to shareholders.
We currently have a long-term Neutral recommendation on Xerox. The
company, which competes with
Canon, Inc.
(
CAJ
) and
Hewlett-Packard Company
(
HPQ
), maintains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term (1
to 3 months) Hold rating.
CANON INC ADR (CAJ): Free Stock Analysis Report
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XEROX CORP (XRX): Free Stock Analysis Report
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