Carl Icahn strongly supports Xerox/HP merger

Activist investor Carl Icahn strongly supports the merger of the American copier and printer manufacturer Xerox with computer and printer manufacturer HP. He said that on Thursday to business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

Xerox recently expressed its interest in the much larger HP, for which it generates around $ 33 billion in shares and cash. A deal would merge two of the biggest names in the field of office equipment.

Icahn has a 10.6 percent interest in Xerox. He is also a shareholder of HP, with a stake of just over 4.2 percent. The 83-year-old billionaire sees major cost benefits in a merger.

“The combination is a no-brainer,” he told the newspaper. “I strongly believe in synergies”.

The international market for printing and copying equipment has been under pressure for some time due to the movement of companies to the cloud and other internet services. HP has been struggling for years in the personal computer market, recently appointed a new top executive and is cutting its staff to cut costs. The print division of the company, currently an important source of profit, is also seeing revenue decline.