Xerox, ACS close $6.4B merger deal

Xerox Corp.'s $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., approved by the shareholders of both companies on Friday, creates a combined company of nearly 130,000 employees that plans to rely heavily on technology innovation.

ACS is combining with a company that spends some $800 to $900 million of its $18 billion in annual revenue on its research operations, which include the famed Palo Alto Research Center Inc. or PARC.

While the merger of Xerox and ACS will result in staff cuts, mostly in overlapping corporate reductions, officials at both firms insist that the intent of the merger isn't to boost profits by cutting workers, but rather through cross selling and marrying ACS's business process expertise with Xerox's technology and services.

The message the combined operation is sending to customers is: “We're not changing your team,” said ACS CEO Lynn Blodgett. Blodgett will continue to run ACS as a division of Xerox.

Blodgett sees a key benefit to the merger is the access to Xerox's research, which provides “a tremendous innovation resource.”

For example, Blodgett said ACS could use Xerox's technology to image license plates instead of relying transponders on the E-Z Pass automatic toll collection systems it operates for the state of New York.

On the business side, new managed desktop services may emerge from the combined firm, said Jim Firestone, president of corporate operations at Xerox. Combining the ACS “typically managed desktop” with Xerox' managed print services “is a very compelling proposition,” said Firestone.

Xerox has developed document technology that enables companies to use the information locked in unstructured data, which ACS could use “in health care and government services and virtually every area of business process management,” said Firestone.

Craig LeClair, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., said that the addition of the ACS operation provides Xerox with a “much more complete business process.” Xerox will be able offer outsourcing for the entire HR process, for instance, and not just the scanning front end, said LeClair.

Officials said that the about 20% of the combined firm's large customer base use products and services from both firms, providing ample opportunities to cross-sell.

About 90% of ACS business is in the North America while Xerox generates half of its revenue from outside the U.S. Thus the merger provides ACS with the opportunity to expand outside the U.S., said officials at both companies. “This give [ACS] credibility globally that we don't have now,” said Blodgett.

Dallas-based ACS in recent years has moved to better compete with offshore competitors by adding to its overseas labor force while cutting its U.S. headcount. In June, 2008, ACS had 65,000 employees, including approximately 45,000 employed domestically, a year later. ACS had 74,000 employees overall — 42,000 employed domestically.

ACS has said it boosted the offshore operations to stay competitive with offshore outsourcers