Xerox nominates 11 to HP’s board as part of ongoing takeover bid

NORWALK, Connecticut and PALO ALTO, California — In the latest salvo in its ongoing takeover efforts, Xerox Holdings Corp. (NYSE: XRX) submitted 11 executives to replace the board of HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) later this year.

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based printer maker submitted the list of executives, which include alumni from UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS), Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT), Praxair Inc. and other companies that completed major tie-ups in the past several years.

Xerox is pursuing a hostile takeover of HP after initially offering to take over the computer maker for $33.5 billion in cash and stock in November.

In a hostile takeover, the aggressor company attempts to gain enough influence over its target by getting either a majority of shareholders to cede their stock or, in Xerox’s case, filling the target’s board with people willing to accept the acquisition offer.

HP has 12 seats on its board, with one occupied by CEO Enrique Flores. In a statement, HP called Xerox’s nominations a “self-serving tactic” as part of the takeover efforts and particularly chided activist investor and former Trump Administration member Carl Icahn for putting his own agenda ahead of other stockholders in pushing for the acquisition. Icahn holds stock in both companies, and Xerox chairman Keith Cozza is currently CEO of Icahn’s investment firm.

“(Icahn’s) large ownership position in Xerox means that his interests are not aligned with those of other HP shareholders,” the company said.

HP has yet to set a date for its annual meeting this year, but held 2019’s meeting in late April.

The takeover offer is unusual because Xerox, which reported $9.22 billion in revenue in the past 12 months, is significantly smaller than HP, which brought in $58.7 billion. Xerox secured a $24 billion loan earlier this month to finance the potential takeover.

HP has deep roots in Northern Colorado’s tech scene despite shrinking its local footprint in the region for decades.  At its peak in the ’60s and ’70s, it employed more than 3,000 people in its Loveland campus alone and produced the first commercial scanners in its Greeley plant.

Today, approximately 600 people work at the Fort Collins office, according to estimates from LinkedIn data.

HP Enterprise Inc. (NYSE: HPE) also has offices in Fort Collins and Boulder, but is a separate company from HP Inc. created from a 2015 spinoff. Xerox’s takeover efforts would not affect employees at those two sites.

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