In October 2015, Lexmark announced that it had hired the investment firm Goldman Sachs to “explore strategic alternatives,” and said these alternatives could include a possible sale of the entire company or part of it.
The company is now considering selling its hardware and software divisions separately. From a numbers standpoint, Lexmark’s software divisions saw revenues of $148 million in Q3 and the hardware division saw a revenue of $703 million.
Since the announcement of the possible sale, the following interests have been reported.
Konica Minolta
In January, Photizo Group reported that Lexmark’s “Board of Directors are preparing to sell Lexmark to Konica Minolta”; but only the hardware product line as Konica Minolta has “no desire to take ownership of Enterprise Software”. Konica Minolta’s interest in Lexmark lies in their desire to “complete gaps” in their product line.
Vista Equity Partnership and Thoma Bravo
Bloomberg reported in February that private equity firms Vista Equity Partnership and Thoma Bravo put first-round bids on Lexmark’s software division and that both Canon Inc. and Ricoh Co. have expressed interest in the hardware unit.
Apex Technology Co. Ltd.
Reuters then reported on April 7th, that Apex Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of print cartridges and ink-cartridge chips, had also entered the bidding to purchase Lexmark. Apex is interested in purchasing the entirety of the company instead of just the software or hardware units.
Lenovo
The latest information about the bidding process came at the beginning of March when Channel News reported exclusively that China’s Lenovo, was in talks to purchase Lexmark International. Lenovo is the number one manufacturer of PC’s and has a history of purchasing distressed companies.
Lexmark’s current market value sits at $1.7 billion but has consistency reported revenue drops quarter of quarter. We shall see who if any company succeeds in purchasing Lexmark.
